Flames Extinguished and Rekindled
by insanemonkeyboy
Summary: When Fairy Tail fails to take down Zeref, Natsu is sent back in time by none other than the god of time himself, Chronos. How will this change the course of Fairy Tail's history, and the overall war with Zeref? What new relationships will be forged? Eventual Namizatear (NatsuxMiraxErzaxUltear) WARNING: Dark Themes Including Sexual Assault (not Natsu). Chapter 8 specifically.
1. Chapter 1

**I don't own Fairy Tail... Standard disclaimer stuff. Mashima owns Fairy Tail.

So this is the "Back in time" fic written as a request. This isn't exactly your traditional "back in time" story as Natsu will have no memory of the future he was sent from. But anyway, here it is. Hope you enjoy it!

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Over… It's all over…

That was the only thought in Natsu Dragneel's mind as he lay there on the battlefield. Everyone in Fairy Tail was dead. Zeref, August, and Irene were enough to take out even Gildarts, Laxus, and Erza fighting together. Their one ally among the Spriggan 12 had been killed as well, and though in the end they'd defeated all but their strongest members, the remaining few had been enough.

He wanted to get up again and kill Zeref, but his body wouldn't move. Couldn't move. He could only watch as the black mage – his brother – advanced toward him on the battlefield. The conflicted emotions – the sorrow and remorse – that he'd once seen on the man's face were no longer there. It was clear that this Zeref thought of people only as pieces. Pieces to be moved around on a chessboard of his making.

Then suddenly Zeref, August, and Irene stopped midstep. The whole battlefield became dead silent, even the cries of the vultures already gathering in the skies above were gone. Then came a deadly, swishing sound like a whirlwind, and something emerged from Dimaria Yesta, who lay fallen on the ground nearby. Was this the god soul that Wendy spoke of?

The thing swirled around, growing larger till it was bigger even than the celestial spirit king, and formed into a humanoid shape. The form was nothing like the valkyrie's god soul takeover. The god wore no armor, but seemed to be composed almost entirely of gears and empty space, his face having two eyes that were set like the faces of a clock in it. When he spoke, his voice was deep, timeless as it echoed through Natsu's very soul.

"Natsu Dragneel. It was for this moment that I came to this battlefield. It is against our law for the gods to interfere in the realm of humans, but this is a critical juncture in time. Your loss here would open the door to a new universe where the gods themselves are overthrown, and everything is plunged into the darkness of one man's unquenchable thirst."

"To avert this crisis, the gods have allowed me to come this once and interfere in your world by assisting the one being capable of defeating the black wizard. You, Natsu Dragneel, or Etherious Natsu Dragneel if you prefer."

"Help me how?" Natsu finally managed to find words. "I have no magic left…"

"I will send you back in time," the time god replied. "When you awake, you will remember nothing of the future you left. Your magic power will be the same as it was at the age you return to. But your subconscious will remember. Your only conscious memory of the future will be that you were not strong enough. And that _must_ be enough to drive you to become stronger. I can do no more."

"But… Wait, couldn't you send someone else?"

Before he even finished the sentence everything faded into white, and Natsu Dragneel knew nothing more.

 **~~~~~~Time unknown~~~~~~**

"Wake up brat!" Natsu started up from the roar, jumping like a startled cat into the air.

"Hahaha!" Igneel laughed, his deep, thunderous voice filling the forest as Natsu came to his senses. The boy just pouted at his dragon father.

"You could be nicer about it." He said, crossing his arms and huffing.

"Maybe when you learn to take your magic more seriously."

The young boy paused at that, the words striking a deep chord in him. He had the nagging feeling there was truth to those words. He wasn't taking his training seriously enough. He needed to grow stronger.

"Alright," He said, jumping up and pumping his fist. "I'm gonna' train double hard today so I can become the strongest dragon slayer around. I'll even be stronger than you dad!"

"Don't get ahead of yourself brat," Igneel sounded a bit taken aback by his enthusiasm. Natsu was a little confused by his reaction, but he just rolled with it. At least, he rolled with it till his stomach suddenly roared at him.

"Better get some food in you first, Natsu," Igneel chuckled, tossing some kind of dragon-cooked meat in front of him.

"Thanks," Natsu ate everything as quickly as he could. As soon as he finished, he jumped up and got into his fighting stance. "Alright, let's train!"

"What's gotten into you, brat?" Igneel said, another laugh shaking his enormous frame. "Not that I'm complaining. It's only fitting that the fire dragon king's son be the strongest slayer."

 **~~~~~~Some years later~~~~~~**

"I must say Natsu, you progressed far beyond my expectations." Igneel looked down at his adopted son, a glimmer of pride surfacing.

"Of course I did dad, I'm awesome!" Natsu pumped a fist in the air. The young dragon slayer was now close to ten years old, but his magic power was immense for his age.

The dragon shook his head, surprised at the turn of events. Since the day that the young boy changed, his dedication to training had been absolute. He quickly mastered all the basic moves of a fire dragon slayer, and even mastered techniques that he formerly labeled 'boring' such as advanced meditation.

The fire dragon king had never really figured out what happened to elicit such change in the boy, but he decided to chalk it up to growing up.

"Fire Dragon's Savage Talons!" His thoughts were interrupted by the boy's improved talon attack, receiving a quick, successive, double talon strike to his back. Obviously he hadn't grown up too much.

"Enough! Our training is done for the day!" He grabbed Natsu in one of his large hands, setting him firmly down in front of him.

"I still can't even hurt you…" Igneel was surprised to see the boy looking at the ground, almost in tears. Where was this coming from all the sudden? Perhaps the boy could sense that tonight would be their last night living this way… From tomorrow on, he would exist inside, unknown to the boy he raised as a son.

"Hey," Igneel raised Natsu's chin with one of his enormous fingers. "You're far past any other human your age. Remember everything that I taught you. Train hard, and in 4 or 5 years you should be able to use the fire dragon king spells that I taught you. Until then, your body won't be ready to handle the magic power they require, even with your dedication to training. When that happens, you'll have access to the dragon king force, and the true power to kill dragons."

"Dragon king force?" Natsu looked at him, his small black eyes wide.

"It's like your dragon force, but stronger." Igneel said. "It's a variation of the dragon force that can only be passed from the dragon king to his chosen heir."

"COOL!" Natsu pumped his fist in the air again. "Except I'm not sure how happy I am to become your ear. Does that mean I'll be attached to your body?"

"Heir…" Igneel corrected with a sigh. "It basically means son."

"Oh," Natsu said. "Cool!"

With his spirits lifted, the boy at the dinner that Igneel laid out for him. The rest of their short evening continued as it usually did, using advanced meditation to increase the magic container and spell power until the boy couldn't push his body anymore. And then they went to sleep.

 **~~~~~~A few days later for Natsu, 400 years later for the rest of the world… AKA x777~~~~~~**

Makarov Dreyar, guild master of Fairy Tail, stopped as he opened the door, a grandfatherly smile on his old face. "You see? This is a wizard guild," he said to the pink-haired boy he was escorting.

"Cool," Natsu grinned as he looked around at all the people. "And I can join?"

"Just come to the front with me and get your guild stamp," Makarov said. "Then I'll introduce you to your guild mates."

He couldn't help smiling as he saw the boy's sadness disappear, if only for a few minutes. He brought him to the front of the guild. "Now where would you like your guild mark, and what color?"

"Red, and on my right shoulder."

Makarov placed the stamp on Natsu's right shoulder as he requested. Then turned toward the rowdy guild in front of him.

"Attention everyone! I want you all to meet your newest guild mate, Natsu Dragneel! Make sure you introduce yourselves to him brats!"

As he expected, the only ones to approach initially were Cana, Gray, and Levy. They started immediately.

"Natsu, where are you from?"

"What kind of magic do you use?"

"How strong are you?"

"Umm, I grew up in the forest," Natsu said with a grin. "I was raised by my father Igneel. He also taught me dragon slayer magic."

"Dragon slayer magic? I've never heard of that before!" Levy said, her eyes sparkling at the idea of new magic.

"Probably because he made it up," Gray smirked. "Ain't no such thing as a dragon slayer."

"I did not make it up!" Natsu yelled, turning to Gray. "My dad taught me dragon slayer magic. And he would know too. He was a dragon after all!"

At this there was silence. Makarov watched, interested to see how this would develop.

Gray was the first to break the silence, his laughter filling the whole guild. "A dragon! Ha! That's a good one flame brain. Everyone knows there haven't been dragons on Earthland for 400 years."

"That's not true!" Natsu yelled. "Igneel was a fire dragon, and he raised me and taught me magic. He's the only dad I ever had!"

"Well where is your 'dad' then?" Gray scoffed. "If he's so real, prove it."

Natsu's face fell. "He… He disappeared a few days ago. I woke up alone in the forest, and when I searched for him I couldn't find him anywhere…"

"Of course he did," Gray laughed. "So your imaginary dad vanished and now you're here with no way to prove he ever existed."

Makarov started as he felt the temperature rising in the room. Natsu's eyes reflected anger as he yelled at the ice mage. "You take that back! My dad wasn't imaginary! Don't you dare make fun of Igneel!"

"Yeah sure, why don't you go out and find your gecko then?" Gray asked. "I just lost interest in fighting you. You probably make up these stories because you're so weak and you don't want to have to fight people."

"Fire Dragon's Roar!" Makarov groaned, burying his face in his hands as half the guild was destroyed and an enormous hole appeared in the wall. Gray remained standing for an instant, his mouth still open as though he were about to say something more, then he toppled, his eyes closing in unconsciousness.

"Enough!" Makarov groaned as Erza's voice cut in, the red-headed child approaching Natsu with her sword drawn.

"What, you wanna' fight too?" Natsu asked.

Erza looked stunned that this newcomer dared to challenge her. Makarov knew he should probably intervene, but he waited, knowing that this would be a good chance to gauge how strong the boy actually was.

Recovering from her initial shock, Erza charged the pink-haired boy, ready to teach him a lesson. Natsu dodged her attack, striking her with a flame-covered fist. She fell back a couple steps, grunting, then glared up at the dragon slayer.

"I see I can't take you lightly, but you will learn discipline," she stated, putting her sword at the ready..

"I'm all fired up!" Natsu grinned.

By this time, any remaining members of the guild were gathering. Nobody expected the new guy to stand up to Erza. Makarov stroked his chin as he watched, knowing he would have to intervene soon.

Erza fired the first attack, a quick, straightforward slice that would've devastated most in the guild with its sheer power. Natsu manage to avoid the strike, kicking out with one of his feet toward her midsection. Erza blocked with her non-sword arm, but was still pushed back a couple feet. "Time to kick it up a notch," she said, requipping to her winged armor and summoning her blades.

"Wow!" The pink-haired boy seemed to forget all about the fight for an instant as he looked at her new armor. "That's really cool!"

"Dance my blades." As Makarov expected, Erza didn't take the time to acknowledge the compliment, focused only on forcing the new member into submission. He watched as Natsu reacted quickly, dodging and weaving among the blades. Occasionally he would deflect one with his fist, and sometimes a blade would slip past his defenses and nick his torso.

Then, when the blades had run their course, he instantly hit back with a counterattack. "Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" Erza was unable to dodge the attack and flew backward, colliding with a pillar in the back of the guild with such force that the thick wooden support pillar cracked under the impact. When she came back to her feet there was fire in her eyes.

"Let's see you beat this," she said, requipping to her purgatory armor.

"I'm all fired up," Natsu grinned, his magic aura radiating in the form of intense heat.

Makarov's eyes widened as the two prepared what looked like devastating strikes. As they charged, he reached out, his arms growing to titan proportions. His fists enveloped the combatants just before their attacks could be completed, saving hundreds of thousands of jewels worth of damage to the guild.

"Enough brats!" He yelled, letting his titan voice come out a little bit. "Are you trying to destroy my guild?!"

"Oops, sorry gramps." Natsu just gave him the cheeky grin that he was already becoming accustomed to after only a few days with the dragon slayer. Erza looked properly chastised, hanging her head in shame.

"I have failed to uphold discipline in the guild," she said. "You may strike me."

Makarov sighed, releasing them both from his grip. "If you want to fight, do it outside from now on."

"Got it gramps!"

"Yes, master Makarov."

Makarov watched as the guild members, who had been watching the battle with baited breath, now swarmed the dragon slayer, some of them more willing to believe his story about being raised by a dragon now. But Natsu pushed his way through them toward Erza, who had retreated silently toward the back of the guild.

"You're really strong," he said with a cheerful grin. "What's your magic called?"

"Leave me alone," Erza turned away, heading toward the bar.

"But that was the most fun I've had since… since my father left," Natsu said, his tone dropping a bit for a minute. Then his voice regained its higher, more excited pitch. "And your magic is awesome! How do you change your armor and weapons like that?!"

"I said leave me alone," Erza said, sighing as she sat down at the bar and ordered a strawberry cheesecake.

"But why? I mean, you've got an eye patch too!" Natsu grinned.

Erza turned, her eyes on fire now. "Let. Me. Eat. My. Cheesecake. In. Peace." She ground out, glaring at the pink-haired boy.

Makarov watched the duo with a sigh. If only Erza would open up to Natsu. Someday the girl would have to recognize that she couldn't carry all her burdens by herself. And he could already see Natsu would be the perfect person to pull her out of her shell. His unquenchable cheerfulness and big heart assured that. If only she would give him a chance.

A chance, hmmm? Yes… she just needed to give him a chance…

 **~~~~~~Natsu~~~~~~**

"Man, she doesn't have to be so mean, does she?" He sulked as he returned to the group at the table.

"What happened flame brain, get beat up by Erza for making up stories?" Smirked Gray, who had just returned to consciousness.

"Actually, he and Erza seemed pretty equal," the girl with long brown hair said with a big smile. "Master had to break up their fight."

"What?! No way!" Gray looked at Natsu with disbelief. "You can fight on par with that monster?"

"She's not a monster," Natsu said with a frown. "She's just a girl, but I don't know why she doesn't want to talk to me."

"Yeah, whatever bro," Gray said as another boy approached the table. This one had brown hair. "But seriously, you can fight equal with her?"

"Natsu, was it?" The other boy interrupted as he reached the table. "My name is Jet. It's a pleasure to meet you." Then he suddenly bowed, causing Natsu to sweat-drop. "If you will protect me from Erza's wrath I will be your most loyal friend forever."

"Hey! I was here first," Gray yelled. "Protect me from Erza, flame-brain!"

"Huh?" Natsu scratched his head. "Why don't you just protect yourselves?"

At that the two of them looked at the ground, digging their toes into the floor. "She's too strong…"

"So protect me or I'll beat you up!" Gray yelled.

"Umm, do you realize what you just said?" Jet asked as he sweat-dropped.

"Umm. Ok." Natsu sweat-dropped.

"Natsu and Erza, come to my office immediately!"

"Looks like you're in trouble, flame-brain." Gray smirked.

"Number one rule of Fairy Tail, don't piss off the master. He's probably going to make you do _that_." Jet said.

"He wouldn't make a new member do _that_ ," the girl with long brown hair said.

"I wouldn't be so sure," Gray smirked. "Flame brain did just destroy half the guild."

"Good luck bro," Jet said as Natsu started toward Makarov's office. Erza also approached the office, glaring at him with her one good eye.

"This is all your fault," she hissed at him as they went in.

Natsu shot her a surprised glance. How was any of this his fault? She was the one who came up to him demanding a fight. All he did was give her what she wanted, and now she was blaming him? Was it because they were going to have to do _that_? And what was _that_ anyway? Natsu grinned. He couldn't wait to find out!

"Close the door," gramps said when they were both in the office. Erza shut the door quietly behind them and stepped forward.

"I apologize master," she said before gramps could start talking. "I was not considering my actions, and stepped out of line. I will accept any punishment you give."

"Good," gramps said, a slight twinkle in his eye. "Because you and Natsu are going to team up for a few requests. We've had a lot of new requests come in, and there are very few in the guild who can match you for power."

"But Master," Natsu saw Erza's eye go wide as she protested. "You can't put me with this pyro!"

"You said you would accept whatever punishment I choose to give you," gramps said. "This is it."

"Hmph." Erza's cheeks puffed up as she turned toward Natsu, then back toward gramps. "Fine. But we're only teaming up until those requests are done."

Natsu just shrugged. He was a little disappointed that _that_ would still remain a mystery, but he didn't mind teaming up with Erza. He'd get to see more of her magic after all, and maybe they could even become friends.

He glanced over at the girl, who was stubbornly looking away from him, her arms crossed over her chest. Ok. So the friends thing might take awhile…

"Alright, here's the first request you'll go on," gramps handed Erza a sheet of paper with a picture and some writing on it. "I want you to leave tomorrow morning."

"If that's what you want master." Erza turned to glare at Natsu. "Meet me at the train station tomorrow at 8:00 sharp. Don't be late."

"What's the train station?" Natsu asked.

Erza gaped at him. "You can't be serious."

"I've never heard of a train station before," Natsu said, confused. Was this something he should know?

"What, did you live under a rock or something?" Erza glared. "How can you possibly go through any amount of life and not know what a train station is?!"

"I lived in a cave, actually." Natsu said. "Igneel never said anything about train stations…"

"Who is this Igneel?" Erza frowned.

"Igneel's my dad!" Natsu grinned.

"You'd think your father would've taught you better. How did you get around if you didn't ever use trains?"

"Oh, I walked, but if we had a long way to go Igneel flew," Natsu explained, grinning cheerfully. He was glad the redhead was finally taking an interest in his life.

"Flew?" Erza gaped. "Airships are very rare. Your father had an airship?"

"Of course not," Natsu said. "Igneel was a dragon."

"A dragon?" Erza scoffed. "Dragon's haven't lived on Earthland for over 400 years."

"Well Igneel did just a few days ago, before… before he left me." Natsu looked at the floor, pushing the doubts away. Igneel wouldn't just leave him for no reason, would he? Igneel loved him. He was his dad…

"Whatever. Just meet me here tomorrow," Erza said.

"Ok," Natsu said cheerfully.

"I'm glad you two are making up, but you need to get out of my office," gramps growled from behind his desk.

"Yes master!" Erza said.

"Ok gramps," Natsu grinned as he turned to leave.

As soon as they were out of gramps's office, Erza headed away from Natsu. He sighed and went back to the table he was sitting at before.

"Ummm…" He looked at the brown haired girl. "Why isn't Gray wearing anything? Is he one of those people Igneel told me about who take their clothes off for a living?"

This caused Jet, who was waiting to see what the punishment was, to burst out laughing, while the brown-haired girl face-palmed. "Gray, your clothes."

"Oh crap!" Gray started looking around for his clothes, as Natsu watched with a smirk.

"Why does he take his clothes off?" He asked again.

"It's just a weird habit he picked up from his teacher." It was the brunette who replied. "She apparently taught them that in order to be good ice mages, they need to be able to withstand cold. And to do that, she trained them to strip."

"Huh…" Natsu blinked. "So he's an ice mage? No wonder I instantly didn't like him…"

"So Fire and Ice really don't mix," the girl said with a smirk. "The name's Cana by the way."

"Cool," Natsu grinned. Then held his stomach as it rumbled loudly. "So what do you do for food around here anyway?"

"Oh, you can order some at the bar. Normally there's a small charge, but since you're new here and haven't had a chance to complete job requests yet they'll let you eat free for a few days at least."

"Hey flame brain!" Gray was back, half dressed. "Are you going to have to do _that_."

Natsu blinked. "If _that_ means accompany Erza on a few job requests, then yes."

Their heads all turned to him instantly. "You're going on job requests with Erza?"

"Yeah, that's what gramps said."

"But Erza always goes on job requests alone." Jet said, his eyes wide. "Why are you going with her suddenly?"

"I dunno," Natsu shrugged. "That's what gramps wanted."

"Well, good luck bro," Jet said before heading off to the table where the girl with blue hair was sitting.

"Thanks?" Natsu said with a shrug. He didn't think it was a big deal really. Sure, things didn't start out the greatest with Erza, but how bad could she really be? She was probably nice enough once you got to know her. And she must be pretty cool if she had an eye patch!

"I'm all fired up!" Natsu said to no one in particular, pumping his fist into the air.

Then he went back to mingle with the rest of the guild.

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So there's chapter 1. Drop a review and let me know what you think.


	2. Chapter 2

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. Those all belong to Mashima!

Ok awesome readers! Thanks for the reviews, favorites and follows. This is chapter 2 of my "go back in time" story. I've decided that, for the most part, the order of joining will still follow canon up to Lucy's joining, which means that Mira, Elfman, and Lisanna will be coming about a year after Natsu joined. However, I'll probably do a time skip for the next chapter so that we can move on to Mira's joining and get into a little of the Mira/Erza rivalry. It's either that or else spend the next chapter showing how Erza relates to Natsu more and more as a close friend/eventual boyfriend and less like a troublemaker who she's forced to team up with. TBH I haven't really decided fully yet.

But anyway, here's the story. ^^**

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"So this is a train station," Natsu said, gazing at the platform before him.

Somehow he'd expected it to be a little more… grandiose. Maybe a tall, stone monument to the wonders that allowed people to travel as fast as the wings of a dragon, with the secrets of the travel heavily guarded against thieves who would use them for their own profit. Perhaps there could even have been magic cannons mounted on high turrets, a warning against invaders who tried to take this "train station."

But what he got was a simple wooden building with a long platform, and some large, metal, boxy things with wheels lined up all in a row. Perhaps his expectations for the train station had been too high. Now what about the train?

"Take this," He turned to see Erza handing him a small piece of thick paper with some numbers on it. He took it, rather confused. Was this for a snack along the way? Did she not realize that he couldn't eat his own fire, even if it was burning something else?

Wait, how did she know he could eat fire at all? To his memory, that was one part of his magic she hadn't seen yet, as it wasn't necessary in their brief fight at the guild. So what possible use could he have for a piece of pape—

"Give it to the man who asks for your ticket when we get on the train," Erza said. "And wipe that stupid dazed expression off your face."

Natsu blinked, not once, but twice. So this was a ticket? And apparently you needed one of those to ride the train? But surely such a simple piece of paper would be easy to duplicate.

"Come on!" An annoyed Erza looked back toward him, motioning for him to follow her into one of the boxy metal things. As they came into the thing through a small door, a man in a funny hat asked him for a ticket. Remembering what Erza told him a moment ago, he gave the man the piece of paper in his hand before following Erza down through the middle of the boxy metal compartment they were inside of. The row he was walking down had seats on each side, some with tables and most without. Erza dropped into one of the seats and motioned for him to sit across from her.

"This is a train?" He asked her as he sat down, feeling the seats. They were nicely cushioned, which he supposed would be a relief on the long ride that awaited them. There was a wide open space with a large pane of glass next to them. "I can't wait till it starts moving. We must be going a long, long way if this can move as fast as a dragon in flight and we're going to be on it for 4 hours."

"Of course we're going a long way," Erza said. "Otherwise we would just walk. It's cheaper, and right now I have to pay for both of us. But after this don't expect me to pay anything for you."

"Sure," that reminded him, he needed to find out more about this job request stuff. So far he'd figured out that people sent the jobs to the wizard guilds, and then wizards, like him and Erza, went out, and got jewels. But that was about all. "So how does the whole jewels thing work?" He asked.

She looked at him as though he were retarded. "What do you mean?"

"You know," he said. "Jewels. What kind of jewels are they? How many do you have to have to pay people, and how can you tell if they're real jewels or not? How many are we getting for this job?"

"You really are an idiot," Erza said, glaring at him. "How can you not know about jewels? That's what we use to buy and sell things here…" She took out a few pieces of paper with some odd printing on them and showed them to him. "These are each 1,000 jewels. There are smaller amounts, and larger, depending on how much you need. As for this job, we'll get 100,000 jewels when we complete it. Master demanded we split the shares equally, which means each of us will get 50,000."

"Wow – that's so much I don't know what I'd ever do with it!" Natsu said with a grin. He couldn't believe you could make such a fortune just by completing a single request.

"You'd be lucky to find a place that would accept that for one month's rent," Erza said, still staring at him as though he were stupid. "Let alone pay for food. Especially seeing how much you ate yesterday. Food may have been free for you at the guild yesterday, but that's only because you're a newbie. Don't expect the master to let you eat free after you've completed this job. But if this job goes well, we'll take a more difficult one after that. Since I'm stuck with you on my team for a while we might as well make the most of it."

Natsu was about to reply when the doors closed. Everyone in the train was seated, and the man in the funny hat walked up and down the aisles telling everyone they were about to begin moving. Then suddenly, the train started moving.

Natsu instantly lost any interest in conversation. Or anything else for that matter. His stomach churned and bubbled, threatening to force the contents of his stomach back up through his throat and out of his mouth. It felt as though his insides were being ripped apart. Was this 'that' punishment? The one he was warned about by the others? He managed to look around, wondering if everyone else was also here for a punishment, and was surprised to see them all sitting there normally before his face turned green again and he had to cover his mouth to keep his fluids in.

"What's wrong with you?" Erza's irritated voice reached through the pounding in his eardrums. "Are you sick? You'd better not get me sick! I have to work you know!"

"There's nothing wrong with me, it's this 'train!'" Natsu said, but with his hand over his mouth, which was still shut tightly to hold back the urge to vomit, what came out was a series of muffled grunts.

Erza just looked at him disgustedly, pulling her legs as far back from his chair as she could.

Natsu had no idea how long the death trap was moving before it finally came to a stop. He breathed deeply the pain in his head and gut slowly receding. "Finally," he gulped, sitting up all the way in his chair. He looked up to see Erza staring at him.

"No way…" She said, looking at him. "You suffer from motion sickness!"

"Motion sickness?" Natsu blinked, wondering what kind of ill fate he met with to be cursed with such a malady. "What's motion sickness?"

"It means that when you're in a moving vehicle you feel really sick," Erza said with an exasperated sigh. "And then when it stops you feel alright."

"Oh," Natsu thought about that for a moment. Then, "what's a vehicle?"

"Any machine that moves on its own," Erza said, annoyed. "Now let's go."

"Aye ma'am," Natsu said with a slight smirk as he followed her off the train. As soon as he was off the machine from hell he fell to his hands and knees, spreading his arms wide as though he could hug the whole ground.

"Enough of that," said Erza, sounding annoyed. "We have to speak to the client."

Natsu got up and followed her into the town they were now in. It kind of looked like Magnolia, with lots of buildings lining the streets as they moved away from the train station. There were shops. They passed several clothing shops. A couple magic shops, and were just about to pass a bakery when Erza stopped.

"There is some urgent business I must attend to inside this establishment," she declared. "Wait here."

Natsu waited outside the building, but with his enhanced hearing it was easy to hear what was going on inside.

"What kind of strawberry cakes do you sell here?" Erza demanded of some poor soul, probably whoever was at the counter.

"Well, let's see… We have strawberry pound cake, strawberry cheesecake, strawberry shortcake, strawberry cream cake, strawberry jello cake, and just good old fashioned strawberry cake. Then, if you'd like to expand your flavors a bit, there's a chocolate strawberry cake, white chocolate strawberry cake, white chocolate lemon strawberry cake, white chocolate lemon strawberry cheesecake, strawberry-raspberry tart cake, upside-down strawberry cake, sweet strawberry delight cake…"

"I'll take that last one," Erza said, cutting him off. "The sweet strawberry delight cake."

"Ah, an excellent choice miss," the man said. "But I feel I should tell you that is our most expensive cake. You see, the strawberries we use to make it grow only in a small region of Fiore and are very rare."

"How much?" Erza demanded.

"50,000 jewel," the man replied.

There was no sound for a few moments, then the sound of paper hitting the wooden counter. "How long till it's ready?"

"This is a very delicate cake, miss. It will take at least an hour and a half before you can pick it up."

"Good. I will be back in an hour and a half then," Erza declared. Natsu then heard her coming toward the door and quickly looked away from the store, pretending to be very interested in the rest of the town.

"Alright, let's get going," Erza said when she came out. "We must return here after we've been fully briefed by the client."

Natsu held his laughter in, not wanting to give her any clue that he heard what the slightly older girl's "important business" had been. Instead, he just followed her down the long street through the town. Slowly the houses began to thin out on either side of them, till they came to a place where every house had its own plot of land and there seemed to be no more businesses.

It was soon after they reached the outer limits of the town that they took a turn to the right. The road here led up a steep hill, with a huge wall blocking their view of most of what lay beyond. There was a large, double door in the wall where the path went through, and over the top of the wall the peak of a mountain rose for all to see.

"This is the client?" Natsu asked as he stared at the wall. He received no response from Erza, who seemed to still be angry with him over this whole ordeal.

Soon they arrived at the gate. Instead of the large wooden doors opening, a small window to the side of the gate opened, revealing a male face with a finely trimmed mustache, angular cheeks, narrow eyes with black brows, and a serious and attentive look to his lips and general demeanor.

"We're here to see Lord Kasor," Erza informed the man.

"What is your business with the lord?" The man asked.

Erza held out the job request. "We are here to attend to this request. We're mages from the guild 'Fairy Tail.' I'm Erza Scarlet, and this is Natsu…" She stopped, looking at him expectantly.

Natsu looked back at her questioningly. Did she expect him to add something right now? Wasn't she supposed to be showing him how this worked? What was she waiting for?

"Your last name, idiot!" she hissed.

"Oh. Dragneel! Natsu Dragneel," he said with a big grin.

"I'll inform the master of your arrival," the man said before closing the window and heading off, leaving Natsu and Erza alone outside the gate.

Natsu just looked up at the enormous wooden doors in awe. Igneel had told him a little about castles, and he imagined that must be what lay beyond this wall. After all, castles were large, stone buildings often surrounded by high walls, and sometimes even moats, that lords and ladies stayed in with their armies to protect them from outside attacks. This particular wall seemed to span the distance between two shear cliffs. It was pretty amazing that this nice, flat land was so conveniently located halfway up the mountain.

"That's very odd," Erza's voice broke into his thoughts, pulling him back to the mission at hand.

"What is?" He asked, genuinely confused. He didn't think anything was out of the ordinary.

"Why is this door closed in the middle of the day? Typically, lords of estates will keep their doors open during the day to facilitate trade and gain more wealth," Erza explained.

Natsu was surprised and a little awed that the scarlet haired girl knew so much. She was, after all, only a year older than him. But maybe that was from being a Fairy Tail mage. If so, did that mean if he was a Fairy Tail mage for a long time he'd get smart too?

A few moments later the man opened a small door that was inside one of the larger wooden doors, motioning for them to come in. "Lord Kasor will see you now," he said. Now that Natsu could see all of the man, he saw that he was dressed in what appeared to be a dark red tuxedo with white gloves, a tall black hat, and a black button-up shirt. The pants and coat were both lined with gold along the seams, with two smaller silver stripes on either side of the gold. His shoes were also black, a fine dress polish, but from the look of them designed to keep the feet comfortable for the hours the man must spend standing and walking about every day.

They followed the man through the door, which he shut behind them and latched tightly before continuing up the path to the mansion that lay beyond. It wasn't quite what Natsu had been expecting. He expected to see large walls of solid rock. Round turrets with pointed roofs and flags waiving from the top. Perhaps some catapults and crossbow holes along walkways at the tops of the outer walls.

Instead what greeted his eyes was an impressive, if somewhat eccentric, town-style mansion. The doorway to the mansion was in itself an interesting phenomenon. Rather than the large doors at the guild or the smaller, square doors of the shops in the town, this door was triangular in shape. The outer part of the door was painted a bright orange, while the rest was yellow. This was all set inside a bright green and sky-blue sided house. Windows of all different shapes and sizes spread out from the door, and the house itself seemed to follow no set pattern in regard to height, width, or distance between elements. It was as though the entire ensemble was just daring any onlooker to try and find something symmetrical. Just try.

He looked over to see Erza's eye twitching. Apparently the house's design was not to the knight's liking, and she made sure that their guide knew it.

"It would appear that this Lord Kasor has poor taste in architecture," she declared, her eye still twitching as she looked at the scene before them.

"Lord Kasor is somewhat eccentric. That is well known," the man replied impassively as he opened the triangle door. The anomalous entrance apparently had no hinges, Instead, the triangle split in half down the center with both halves sliding into the walls to the side.

The inside of the house was no better than the outside. They first entered a purple foyer, in which an ugly green coat rack invited guests to leave their fine furs in its hideous arms. Beyond that, the purple faded and transformed into a vibrant pink, illuminated by the sunlight pouring in through the trapezoidal window that covered most of the southern wall. Beyond that, another door, this one arranged in the form of a crescent moon, opened into what proved a rather small study. The study was a bit darker than the rooms they had just come from, probably because its only lighting came from a series of small, star shaped windows scattered across the top of the wall to the north.

In the center of the study stood a long table. To say that it was square wasn't quite accurate. In fact, to ascribe a single shape to it could not possibly do it justice. For here the surface turned sharply, jaggedly even. There it curved in the soft, circle flow. Here it was straight, and there blocky. On the other side of the table sat a man in a chair. The chair seemed the only normal thing about this room, having itself only a single, straight wooden back and four legs that all reached to the floor. Yet the same could not, perhaps, be said of the man sitting in the chair.

For starters, there was not a hair to be found anywhere on his head, which itself was no pretty sight. His skull appeared somewhat lumpy in areas, and it crossed Natsu's mind instantly that a little hair, or even a wig, would do wonders for the fellow. However, a look down from the clean-shaven top of the head to the eyes, nose, and mouth quickly dispelled that notion. First, the man's eyebrows were quite obviously died. One was in every shade of the rainbow, starting with red closest to the nose and working out to violet as it wisped toward the ear. The other was pure white with black polka dots scattered across it. These were above dual tone eyes. One eye seemed green at times, and at others blue, while the other seemed yellow at times, and at others gray. Yet the eyes, small and narrow as they were, were nearly lost behind the hatchet nose, which was pierced twice. Other than their unusual size, his lips were perhaps the most normal part of his face.

His clothing was no different. A strange assortment it was, and Natsu could only imagine that it had been custom made since he had seen nothing like it on any people, nor even through windows in the clothing store. His button-up shirt was lined at the bottom with vertical stripes of varied pastel colors, though they were not straight. Some zig-zagged, others proceeded in wavy patterns. Some boxy, and others almost straight. About halfway up the stripes just abruptly ended, and the rest of the shirt consisted of every shape imaginable, from simple squares and circles to the most feared monsters of Fiore, all set on a bright red background. His pants were only slightly less bizarre. These were pastel green with orange stripes, and had purple and pink hearts and polka dots scattered across them.

As they stood before him the man greeted them with a slight frown, his eyes appraising them. "You are the wizards that were sent? I had expected some more… experienced wizards."

"I believe you will find us sufficient for the job," Erza said.

"If you show me your Fairy Tail marks, it will be sufficient," Lord Kasor said. "Fairy Tail is a well-known guild, and I know the master wouldn't let you come if he didn't believe you were ready."

They obliged and showed their guild marks, which was when Natsu realized he hadn't seen Erza's before. Erza's guild mark was blue, but like Natsu's it was close to the shoulder, on her left bicep. That was an exciting discovery. Their guild marks were in similar locations. She couldn't be that bad of a person if she was in Fairy Tail and she even had a similar location for her guild mark to his!

After seeing the guild marks, Lord Kasor nodded and indicated they could cover them up again. Well, Erza could, at least. Natsu's was always revealed since he wore a sleeveless shirt and a vest, with the white scarf Igneel left him wrapped around his neck as always. Then he motioned for them to sit down in two chairs on the opposite side of the table.

"So what can we help you with? The job request wasn't very clear on the details, except that there is a monster here that we must stop." She sounded impatient. Natsu looked at the clock, wondering why she would already be impatient with the man, and instantly understood. The briefing hadn't even started yet a whole hour had gone by since their departure from the bakery. She was worried about her strawberry cake! He found himself again having to hold back a chuckle at the realization, as the client was briefing them on the situation.

"Well, to put it bluntly, I'm the situation."

That got both of them to start. Though Natsu had only been a Fairy Tail mage for a couple days now, he found it hard to imagine a person putting in a request to defeat himself. He leaned in closer, feeling Erza also leaning toward the table as they waited for Lord Kasor to continue.

"You see, it seems that recently, though I'm ashamed to say it, I've developed a habit of… Well, of turning into a monster whenever I sleep. I want you to try to get to the bottom of it, and stop me from destroying anything when I'm that… creature." He buried his face in his hands.

"So you fall asleep in your room, and wake up outside or something, and people tell you about the monster?" Natsu wondered why Erza didn't just ask him how he knew instead of guessing at a possible scenario. Ah well, if he was going to be partnered with her for a few missions, he'd have to get used to it.

"No," Lord Kasor sighed. "I fall asleep and wake up in my bed, as though everything were normal. But after the first few times that the creature appeared, my servants were all watching for it. That was how they discovered that it came from my room and returned there."

"I see." Erza smiled as she stood up. "Well then, I have some rather urgent business I must attend to in town, so we will be back by the time night falls to get to the bottom of this."

"Oh no," Lord Kasor said. "I'm afraid that's not possible."

Erza's smile quickly faded. "And why not?" She demanded.

"Well, you see, I sleep several times during the day, and I'm about to go take a nap now. That means the monster could appear at any time."

"But…" Erza stood, staring at the man as though she didn't comprehend what was happening.

"What is it that you need to do in town?" Lord Kasor asked, his rainbow-striped eyebrow raising in curiosity.

"My sweet strawberry delight cake…" Erza said, looking as though she were about to cry, which made Natsu sweat-drop. "It'll be ready in less than 20 minutes."

"Ah. Have no fear about that, young lady. I understand there are things one absolutely must have in life. One of my servants will go pick up your sweet strawberry delight cake. They will be able to get to town and back faster than you could walking, at any rate!"

"Oh thank you so much, Lord Kasor!" Erza bowed deeply, popping back up with an exuberant smile.

"Yes, yes." The mansion's lord yawned, raising a hand to his mouth to cover it. "Now, if you'll excuse me, it's time for my nap. Jervo, be a good lad and pick up miss Erza Scarlet's sweet strawberry delight cake from town."

"It's in the bake shop by—"

"I know the shop, miss. Only one that makes that cake," the servant interrupted her before he departed.

Lord Kasor likewise departed through a door into what must've been his bedroom. Then the door shut, leaving Natsu and Erza alone in the study.

"Well, he was an interesting guy," Natsu said, grinning at Erza.

"Yeah," she answered shortly, focusing on the door.

Natsu sighed as a few minutes of silence followed, looking around the tacky room again. On some purple and orange covered shelves he saw an odd collection of books and figurines. The figurines drew his interest, as they seemed to be mostly of unknown or strange beasts from ancient times or around the world. As they headed back out of the room, he noticed that the rest of the house also had similar decorations. Statues, figurines, even books. Some of them even seemed to be an eccentric mishmash of creatures carved into a single body, so that they didn't even look as though they fit in any age of Earthland.

"We wait here." Natsu turned at the sound of Erza's voice to see her sitting in a chair looking through the open door to the study. Coming next to her, he saw that the door to Lord Kasor's room was visible from this spot. Apparently Erza planned to confirm that the monster actually did emerge from the man's room.

"So how long have you been at Fairy Tail?" He asked as he sat down on the floor next to her.

"Long enough," she snapped, her eyes fixed on the door.

"Where did you get that eye patch?"

"I'd rather not talk about it."

Natsu sighed, wondering if there was anything she would talk about. Maybe…

"Where did you learn your magic?"

"Look, just because master forced me to do some job requests with you doesn't make us friends, got that? It's still your fault that I got in trouble in the first place, so don't think I'll forgive you so easily."

 _Except you're the one that started it…_ Natsu sweat-dropped, looking into the room beyond. "It seems so quiet in here."

"Do you know how to keep your mouth shut?"

Before Natsu could retreat a large creature broke through the door to Lord Kasor's room. The creature had the general shape of a horse, but instead of hair and a mane it had scales and a spiky ridge. Its tail ended in 3 prongs, and horns protruded from above its eyes. The creature was mostly a dull red and orange, except for notable black markings around the eyes and on the left flank. Before they fully had time to react, it dashed out of the mansion, barging also through the front door, breaking right through it despite its odd way of opening and closing.

Without a second thought, Natsu took off after the creature. Once it was outside, it started running around the large mansion, looking to the left and right as though searching for something.

"HEY!" Natsu yelled, racing to keep up with the creature. It stopped, turning toward him, and snorted. Its eyes were a fiery red with no pupils.

"You ready Erza?" As he glanced around, he suddenly realized Erza was not with him. Had she been unable to keep up in the chase? She seemed like a capable wizard before, so she should've been able to keep up.

*RAWRG* No time to think about that now. Natsu turned just in time to see the creature leaping at him. Not enough time to jump out of the way or deflect the attack quickly, he instead put his hands between the massive jaws, holding them apart from clamping down.

The creature was quite strong for its size, but thankfully his dragon slayer power enhanced his strength enough for him to easily hold the jaw apart. He was about to kick the beast off him when he noticed a heat growing in its chest.

 **~~~~~~Erza~~~~~~**

 _As I thought_. Erza looked at the sleeping form of Lord Kasor through the broken down door. The man, eccentric though he was, wasn't turning into a beast when he slept. Though many monsters roamed Earthland, only take over mages were known to be able to change their form, and even then that occurred at will. No. This was most definitely somebody else. But who? Perhaps one of the servants was trying to frame the master, but what was the motive? Was someone after his fortune? Did someone hate his eccentricities?

"Let's find the creature now," she said to Natsu. When she received no response she looked around. The pink-headed brat was nowhere to be seen.

With a growl she rushed out of the house. What part of teamwork did this idiot not understand? Instead of doing the obvious thing and checking the room first, he clearly decided to run off after the one who was causing this trouble. And without even telling her.

She heard a loud roar, and sprinted in that direction. As she rounded a corner, her sword in hand and ready to charge, she arrived just in time to see the creature unleash a cone of bright orange flames, enveloping the pink-haired kid who was holding its mouth open.

"Natsu!" She cursed. He might be an annoying brat who got her in trouble with the master, but he was still part of her guild, and she had a responsibility to protect him. The heat from the flames reached all the way to her current position! Taking an attack at point blank like that could be fatal! She steeled herself. She wouldn't be able to count on any help in this fight.

Then to her surprise the flames started disappearing. Not in the normal way of an attack fading, but rather as though they were flowing into the center of the fireball. Soon she could see what was causing it, and her jaw nearly hit the ground. There, in the center of the fireball, was Natsu, and from everything she could tell he was sucking the flames down.

As the last of the flames disappeared into his mouth she was able to see everything clearer. He was unharmed, save his vest, which was burnt away by the heat of the attack. Apparently he hadn't fireproofed that part of his outfit. Something that would have to be fixed later. Her eyes gave his torso a quick run-over. He clearly kept himself in good physical condition. The toning in his arms, abs, and pecs was well above what could normally be expected at his age. Well, perhaps if he had the discipline to keep himself in good physical shape there was hope for him after all.

"Now that I've eaten, I'm all fired up!" Natsu grinned widely, and then as Erza watched he cupped his hands in front of his mouth. "Fire Dragon's Roar!" A huge cone of fire erupted from his lips, sending the creature spinning head over heels into the enormous rock wall that sealed the entrance to the mansion area.

With a roar the creature leapt back to its feet, charging back in as Erza ran up to join Natsu. "Next time don't run in by yourself," she growled at him.

"Next time keep up," he said with a cheeky grin. She growled, infuriated by his attitude. If he waited to chase after the beast till they made sure the lord of the mansion was really at fault, she would've kept up. How dare he try to pin the blame on her?

"Fire Dragon's Iron Fist!" She watched as a flame coated fist impacted the beast, stopping it dead mid charge and even pushing it back a few feet. Without waiting for the creature to react, she quickly charged in, bringing her sword in from the side where it would be impossible to fully evade. The beast was quick, though. It jumped so quickly that her blade barely caught it, but it was enough to throw it off balance so that it couldn't escape Natsu's next attack, a hard kick to the side of the head.

She felt a small smirk coming on. Maybe working with a partner wouldn't be so bad after all, if she could only train him. This creature was quite strong, but thanks to Natsu's help she hadn't been forced to requip out of her base armor yet. With their combined power they could complete even higher level classes. Maybe the master would even let them go on S-class quests as a team. She could imagine all the strawberry cheesecakes she could buy with some of those high rewards!

"Fire Dragon's Wing Attack!" She watched the attack hit the monster hard, knocking it off balance and several feet toward her. Taking the opening, she requipped to her sea empress armor, just for good measure, and hit it as hard as she could with a water based attack. The blow was enough to send the creature tumbling several feet before it lay still not far from them.

"Well, that was easy." Natsu said as he came up beside her, looking at the lizard-horse creature before them. Then, as it lay there, it suddenly disappeared, burns, bruises, cuts, and all, and in its place appeared a figurine no larger than her pinky.

"So it wasn't a servant out for his money," Erza said as she stared at the figurine in surprise. She certainly couldn't have predicted this turn of events, but she would file it away in her memory for future possible scenarios. Who would've imagined that something so small could cause so much trouble?

"That went well, all things considered," she told Natsu. "Since master is going to have us on a team for a while, we should at least get used to working together." She turned to him, proud of having put her foot down to work on making their partnership better, and extended her hand. If he could continue to perform well on their joint missions, she could overlook a certain amount of his troublesome tendencies.

"Uh, sure." He said with his normal grin, shaking her hand.

She nodded, just to make sure that the point was clear that they must learn to get along. She wouldn't tell him her thoughts of continuing the team to take on more profitable missions yet. First they needed to try a few more missions, and he needed to learn how acceptable teamwork went. But at least, with her strong guidance, they could learn to work together. She could tolerate him for that end.

Lord Kasor was so happy to discover that he was not, in fact, the monster that was terrorizing the village that he tried to double their quest reward. Erza, however, wouldn't hear of it. They had completed the job for the price offered, and they would take no more. She did, however, accept his offer to buy her, as a personal friend, of course, another of the amazing sweet strawberry delight cake. And she allowed Natsu to accept his offer to buy him a flame proof vest, and actually found it rather amusing to watch Natsu repeatedly decline Lord Kasor's offers to have his own personal clothier design the vest. In the end, he got a vest similar to the one he was wearing before, black with red dragon patterns and white trim, and the two set off back to the guild to report their job success.

* * *

So there it is. Please Drop a review if you liked it.

By the way, John Cena you don't really need to apologize for "making" me write a pairing I don't like. It's not my favorite pairing to write, but I kind of think it _should_ be canon (if Naza can be) considering their history, and believe me when I say that if I don't want to write something nobody can force me to lol. I honestly think that the major reason that a lot of people don't like this pairing is because Lisanna's character kind of disappears after her return and is portrayed as extremely weak, oddly considering her brother and sister are both quite strong.

Anyway, read and review as always!


	3. Chapter 3

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the Characters. I just write fan fiction about them.

So here's chapter 3. I decided on the time skip because, honestly, I'm too lazy to show the slow development of Natsu and Erza's friendship. So there it is. Hope you enjoy it anyway. :P**

* * *

Several months had passed since Erza's first mission with the pink-haired kid that master forced her to join up with, and if she was honest, her opinion of him changed quite a bit since that first meeting. Sure, he was still the same Natsu. Brash, stubborn, often very naïve about human culture. Not to mention the way he ate. Kami as her witness she would do something about that habit of sending food flying everywhere! But he had his good traits too. He was, after all, very dependable in battle. He showed a devotion to training his strength that bordered on obsession – his growing strength pressed Erza herself to train harder just to feel like she was keeping up with him. And for all his faults, she found he was loyal to a fault and never stopped believing in her. That alone was enough to make her open up to him a little over the months.

Of course, their relationship had gone through a bump about a month ago. Erza supposed, thinking back, that some of it had been her fault. But something had to be done about that… that infernal weakness.

 **~~~~~~Flashback~~~~~~**

"I'm not coming out today! You can't make me!"

Natsu's voice came from behind the door sounding a little like a scared child. Erza could just picture him cowering behind a table, or his hammock, or whatever else happened to be in this hand-built shed he called a home.

"Come on Natsu, this is the last day of your special training. I'm giving you one more chance to come out of your own free will."

"No! I'm not doing any more of that training! I'll fight to the death first!"

Erza chuckled grimly. "While you are certainly equal to me on the battlefield, unless you want to burn your house down in our battle you'd do well not to resist."

"I'll burn it down and build a new one!"

Erza snorted at the dragon slayer's antics. "This is the big, brave son of Igneel who will stand up to any enemy?"

"That's different," Natsu said from within. "When it comes to enemies, I'll take them all on to prove how strong I am. The greater the challenge, the more I want to overcome it." She heard clanging and furniture moving. Barricading the door, as if that would help him.

"Oh really?" She decided to try a different tactic before resorting to brute force. After all, she didn't relish the idea of trying to force Natsu into submission. "So you'd never back down from a challenge?"

"Never," came his adamant response from within.

"Great," Erza grinned. "Because I'm challenging you to finish this last day of training to overcome your motion sickness."

Dead silence on the other side of the door. Erza smirked, even though Natsu couldn't see it. The victory glint was in her eyes.

"I'll accept any challenges that don't involve torture," came the response finally from the other side.

Erza's switch flipped at that point. Requipping to one of her strongest armors, she smashed through the window, which she had moved to during their conversation, and knocked Natsu out with a quick strike.

Or tried. She forgot how fast the dragon slayer was in addition to his physical strength. He caught the blow, glaring at her.

"I ain't getting on that death contraption again."

"You're already getting better," Erza growled, requipping to her flame empress armor. "This is the last day."

"Just because I can make my body function doesn't mean it's not hell," Natsu glared.

"Quit being such a baby. I thought you said the greater the challenge the more determined you are to win, or something like that."

"This is different. Some challenges can't be avoided."

"I think you're just a scared little kid."

Silence for a few minutes. Then… "Fuck you."

Suddenly inspiration hit. "Ok Natsu. You can stay here."

Shock registered on his face, then wariness. "You sure?"

"Of course." Erza felt the smirk spreading on her lips as she looked at her partner. "I'm just gonna' go to the guild and tell Gray all about how the big strong dragon slayer is cowering in his house terrified of a train."

"THAT'S PLAYING DIRTY!" Natsu yelled, his eyes flashing with anger.

"Well, you'd better hurry and decide," Erza said, moving the barricade away from the door and using that to exit instead of the window she'd broken through. "Cause I'm heading back to the guild now."

She opened the door and started down the forest path toward the guild. It wasn't long before she heard footsteps, and Natsu ran up beside her. "Alright, I'll finish your stupid torture training. But I'm gonna' figure out a way to get back at you for this."

"Sure, sure. You'll thank me for it someday." Erza smirked, satisfied with her efforts. Not only had she convinced Natsu to finish her training without using force to do it (not that she was certain that using force would've worked anyway), she'd demonstrated her ability to outwit him. That would show him. Even if she couldn't risk trying to bend him to her will by force, she'd always be able to use her mind to get what she wanted.

Soon they were at the train station, and Erza came up to the ticket window. "Two round tip tickets to your farthest location," she said, unable to fully hide her grin. Next to her, Natsu looked as though he were considering running, so she thought it might be good to give him some extra motivation. "What do you want Gray to hear about today?" She whispered to him as the ticket seller got the tickets. He shot her a glare, but she noticed after that he stopped casting furtive glances back at the exit to the train station.

Then they were on the train, and the last day of motion-sickness training began.

 **~~~~~~End Flashback~~~~~~**

For almost a week after that, he had gotten back at her. Though she was sure that it wasn't intentional. He hardly talked to her, even when they were on missions together. Whenever they would make camp he would go into his meditation practice whenever she started trying to make conversation. When they were fighting large groups of monsters or dark mages, he barely even responded to her friendly competition. If she was honest, she was miserable at that point. She hadn't realized how much their friendship had come to mean to her until he started to treat her like everyone else at the guild.

In the end, she'd apologized for forcing him into the training. He accepted her apology, and now, 3 weeks after the apology, everything was back to normal. They were on their way back, by foot, from their latest mission. Normally Erza would've insisted they take the train, but she was feeling particularly happy about the minimal damage they'd caused on this quest, which allowed them to keep 300,000 of the 320,000 jewel reward. A new record for team Dragon Knight.

They were walking through a small village when they noticed something rather unusual. A mob of people were standing outside of a house, some throwing stones at the house, and all yelling angrily. She was unable to pick out much besides the word demon, which was being thrown around a lot. Her curiosity was piqued, but she was about to walk on by, letting the town deal with its own demons.

She stopped when she felt Natsu gripping her arm, turning to look at him. "What is it Natsu?" She saw that he had a frown on his face.

"I don't know, but there are three people inside that house," Natsu said, tapping his nose. "And from the sound of it, at least one of them is scared… The people outside are calling one of the ones inside a demon."

Erza turned toward the house. "You're sure they're people?" She asked.

Natsu shrugged. "They smell like people, and would a demon really just sit and do nothing if an angry mob was swarming its lair like this?"

Erza opened her mouth to respond and then stopped. He did have a point. There was no way an actual demon would be afraid to retaliate against a group of commoners.

"Hey!" Natsu yelled, running forward before she could stop him. The crowd all turned to stare at him. "Leave them alone!"

"The girl in there is a demon," One of the townspeople, possibly the leader of this mob, said loudly. "She's not welcome here."

"I haven't even seen her yet, but I know she's not a demon," Natsu said. "If she were, you'd all be dead right now."

"Are you taking her side now?" The man sneered, stepping toward him. "Because that wouldn't be a good idea. You're out here, with no doors or windows to protect you from us."

"Maybe I don't need them," Natsu said, his fists lighting on fire. Erza sighed, requipping to her giantess armor and moving forward to stand by him. Why did he have to be so straightforward about everything anyway? If he'd given her a little more time to think, she could've come up with a plan that didn't involve confronting the entire village.

"I suggest you back off," she said loudly. " We don't want to hurt you, but if you persist in this senseless violence we will not hesitate.

As she expected, many heads in the group turned toward the man who initially spoke to Natsu in askance. He stood well above Natsu and Erza and was well built, but her giantess armor was one of her most intimidating suits. That was precisely the reason she chose it.

Apparently, between Natsu's flames and Erza's armor and spear, the man decided it wasn't worth the risk to continue this venture. Casting a quick scowl toward them, he then looked toward the rest of the group.

"I'm not really in the mood to pick on children today," he said loudly. "If you want to go in so badly, be my guest. We'll give you 30 minutes, and if you haven't cleared out by then we'll be back."

There was a lot of muttering and grumbling, but the crowd slowly drifted away, one person at a time. When they were gone, Natsu and Erza turned to the door.

"Please let us in," Erza said after trying the handle. "We're not going to try and hurt you, I promise."

They waited for almost a minute, and Erza prepared to break down the door. Whoever was inside, she didn't just scare a whole village away to let them seclude themselves and refuse her help. Then, finally, she heard the sound of a bolt sliding back. The door opened, revealing a girl around Natsu's age and a boy a little younger than Erza's age, both with silver-white hair. On the other side of the room, huddled against the wall, was what looked like another person around Erza's age. It was impossible to tell whether it was a boy or a girl, as the figure was currently looking at the floor, the hood falling over the face. The cloak covered the entire figure, and the hands were entirely covered by the sleeves.

"We're Erza Scarlet and Natsu Dragneel," Erza said, quickly taking charge of the situation. "Can you tell us why the villagers seemed so angry at you?"

"They don't like Mira-nee," the younger girl said, tears coming to her eyes. "She got rid of the demon in the church, and now they're calling her a demon."

"Lisanna," The boy spoke up. "We don't know these people. They might not be friends!"

"I feel like we can trust them, nii-san." The girl who had just been identified as Lisanna said.

Erza nodded. "We've both seen lots of people, monsters, and even a couple demons. We won't be as quick to judge as those villagers. Now perhaps you can introduce us to the one you call Mira?"

As she finished speaking, offering them her most welcoming smile, she realized that Natsu was no longer at her side. She looked up to see him squatting before the figure huddled against the wall.

"Hi, I'm Natsu!" He said, and though all she could see was the back of her head she half imagined she saw his ear-splitting grin spreading all the way into her field of vision.

"…" There was no response from the cloaked figure, who Erza now knew was named Mira. She just kept looking at the ground.

"You can trust me," he said with a grin. "I heard you got rid of a demon. That's pretty awesome!"

"…"

"Mira-nee," The girl named Lisanna came running up to where Natsu and the one called Mira were. "Please talk to them. They chased the villagers away from us. Maybe they can help us."

The cloaked figure looked up, and Erza got her first glimpse of the face. The blue eyes were the first thing she noticed, bright enough to be visible even under the shadow still cast by the hood. What she could see of the rest of her face looked like she was an attractive girl for her age.

"My name is Mirajane," she addressed herself rather stiffly to Natsu. "You don't want to get involved with us. Believe me."

"Sorry, but I can't believe you on that one." Natsu said, and as Erza came closer she could see that the smile was still on his face. "You all seem like wonderful people to me."

Erza watched as the girl met his gaze, staring at him silently for several moments before sighing softly. "It'll be easier if I show you," she said. "Then you'll just leave me alone like everybody else."

Slowly she pulled back the sleeve on her right hand, revealing an arm that didn't look at all human from the elbow down. Large, spherical objects like black jewels lined skin that was tough and leathery, moving down into a hand that looked more like claws and talons than fingers. Erza couldn't help flinching back a little at the sight, her mind going to the number of times that similar appendages struck at her in her fights with various monsters.

As she looked toward Natsu, though, she saw that his reaction was totally different. His eyes were bulging as he looked at the appendage, but not with fear or horror. He wore an excited smile that was echoed in his voice as he spoke.

"That's so cool!" He said, his face in a wide grin. "Can you do the rest of your body too?"

"…" Mirajane just stared at him, apparently unable to decide how to react to the pink haired boy in front of her.

"I can kinda' do something similar," Natsu continued, and then, before Erza could stop him, he activated his dragon force. His skin turned to scales, his eyes became more angular, and his hands took on sharper, more claw-like features as well.

Fortunately, he deactivated it quickly before the house burned down. Nevertheless, Erza was mad at him. They didn't know anything about these people yet! He shouldn't be showing them his magic like that.

"Sorry I can't do it for any longer right now," Natsu said with a grin. "But it's kinda' dangerous. I might burn your house down or something."

"It's fine," Mirajane found her voice again as she stared at the pink-haired dragon slayer. "But I don't think we'll need this house anymore anyway."

"What do you mean?" Natsu frowned.

"Well, after the villagers attacked us like that, I don't see any reason for staying around." She said matter-of-factly. "I'm going to go see if I can find someone to help me with this…"

"I bet gramps could help you," Natsu said, beaming.

Erza smacked him upside his head. "I keep telling you, it's master Makarov. Not 'gramps.' You will learn to address our guild master respectfully."

"Yeah, whatever." Natsu said with a grin. "Anyway, I'm betting that's some kind of magic. Gramps could help you figure it out."

"I-I don't know," Mirajane said quietly. "What's a guild master? Does that mean there will be a lot of people around?"

"Sure, there's lots of people in Fairy Tail." Natsu grinned. "Makes it more fun!"

Mirajane frowned, looking at the ground again. "I don't know if I like that. What if they don't like me?"

Natsu shrugged. "I like you, so what difference will it make? A lot of them made fun of me when I first got there, but I've got some friends now."

"How do you know you like me? We just met." Mirajane's blue eyes raised to meet Natsu's again. Erza watched the exchange with increasing interest and a growing sense that this girl could be a threat to the bond she was forming with her teammate.

"I can just tell," Natsu said with his wide grin. "I mean, you're obviously strong if you took care of a demon all by yourself, and I can already tell you don't want to hurt people or you would've been going nuts on that crowd outside the door. That already makes you a good person in my book, no matter what anyone else says about you."

Mirajane just stared at him for a few moments, her blue eyes wide as though she didn't know what to think. Then suddenly, unexpectedly, she launched herself at him, wrapping him in a hug.

Erza coughed, glaring at the girl, who released Natsu and stepped back quickly. This girl was trouble. She was way too forward with Natsu for someone who'd just met him, and they weren't even of the age for such things yet. "I'm sorry," she said, tears glistening in her eyes. "I'm just… so used to everyone treating me like a demon… You're the first person who's been nice to me for a long time…"

"No need to apologize," Natsu said, still smiling. "But will you come to Fairy Tail with us?"

"Yes, you would be welcome at the guild," Erza said, needing to take control of this conversation. She couldn't let this newcomer, this hussy, think Natsu was hers for the taking. "My partner and I would be happy to take you there."

"Partner?" Mirajane looked up at Natsu, still not looking toward Erza.

"Oh yea, we partner up for job requests," Natsu said with a grin. Erza watched the exchange, still wary of the new girl. "She's pretty cool when you get to know her," he added with a grin. "She used to wear an eye patch till the old healer lady made her a new eye."

"NATSU!" Erza yelled, smacking him upside the head. How dare he divulge such information without her prior permission? She would have to find a way to punish him when they got back to the guild. "I didn't give you permission to tell her that."

"Oh, sorry." Natsu grinned ruefully at her, then returned his gaze to Mirajane. "Anyway, you'll have to take my word for that."

"I guess so," the girl said, her eyes never leaving his face. Erza thought she detected a faint blush in her cheeks as her blue eyes searched the dragon slayer's face. "Well, it can't hurt to come with you I guess. This Fairy Tail place can't be any worse than the village, certainly."

"That's certainly true," Natsu said with a wide grin, offering her his hand. She took it, with her human hand, and he helped her to her feet. "Now let's get out of here before those villagers get back. As nasty as they are, we'd get in trouble if we injured non-magic users, even if they are assholes."

"Language!" Erza smacked Natsu on the back of the head.

"Geez, lay off mom," Natsu grunted.

Mirajane and Lisanna both giggled at that, and Erza felt her face turning red with anger. How dare he?! She was trying to help him be a better person, and all he could do was make fun of her? Well, she would show him!

"Let's go. There's a town with a train station southeast of here. We can be back to Fairy Tail in 3 hours."

"T-train?" The color drained from Natsu's face.

"What's wrong with trains?" Mirajane asked, looking quizzically at him.

"He gets motion sickness," Erza answered quickly, smirking at the opportunity to give the dragon slayer a negative strike in the new girl's eyes. Now let's see what she thought of him.

"Oh. Well, how long would it take to walk?" She asked.

"Too long," Erza snapped before Natsu could answer. "Let's go." She grabbed Natsu by the hand, pulling him along. She really wasn't happy about the way things were shaping up with this Mirajane person. She couldn't really be straightforward with her right now. But once they got to the guild Natsu would get absorbed in one of his already infamous brawls. Then she could tell her what was what.

 **~~~~~~Mira's POV~~~~~~**

She didn't know why, but she felt as though she could trust this pink-haired boy. Perhaps it was the way his eyes bared his soul to her, showing her what some might consider naivety, but what she could easily see as a wonderful excitement at all things new. A less naïve person would probably have been scared of her magic, but she could see in his eyes when he saw her arm that he wasn't even bothered by it. He honestly thought it was cool that her arm was like that. Somehow she couldn't help but open herself up to him.

The girl, however, was another matter. She introduced herself as Erza, and Mira could already tell she wouldn't like her. Despite Natsu's assurance that she was 'pretty cool' once you got to know her, Mira could sense an enemy when she saw one. This girl was going to be trouble for her. No question about that.

In many ways she was happy that Natsu seemed oblivious to the immediate rivalry that was spawning here. If he were a little more aware, he might have second thoughts of taking her back to the guild. And he made it sound like a really fun place. Now, walking back to the town with a train station, she couldn't help but take in his finely toned back. His neck, held high upon his shoulders with confidence, somehow inspired confidence in her as well. His wide grin and childish attitude made her want to forget the hatred and fear the villagers showed her for so long.

It was a little over an hour before they boarded a train. The train ride wasn't that long, but Natsu didn't say a word for the entirety of it. He just sat quietly and looked out the window. She was somewhat surprised that, if he was motion sick as Erza said, there wasn't more sign of it. The most she could notice was the downward turn of his lips and the uncomfortable look in his eyes.

Not much was said in general on the way to the guild called Fairy Tail. Mira didn't really feel like making conversation with Erza. Lisanna fell asleep. Elfman just muttered some things about being manly as the train rolled along. This left Mira alone with her thoughts. She hoped that she was making the right decision, bringing her brother and sister to this wizard guild that Natsu spoke so highly of. She didn't really have any rational reason to believe him, or to believe that the master of this guild could help her. Yet for some reason she didn't doubt it. A small part of her was daring to feel happy again as she looked at the pink-haired boy across from her. After all, who really cared what the redhead thought?

When they arrived at their destination, about an hour and a half after getting on the train, Natsu was the first one off. Mira watched, amused, as he charged out the door, his hands raised toward the sky. "I'm alive again!" He shouted.

She actually found herself giggling softly as she exited the train shortly behind him, followed by her brother and sister. She then stopped, watching as Erza walked past them to the dragon slayer, who was still in the act of kissing the ground and loudly declaring how happy he was to be on it once again.

"Would you stop it?" She said. "It's embarrassing."

Mira couldn't help herself. She had to say something, if only to get under red's skin. "I think it's cute." She resisted the urge to stick her tongue out as Natsu shot her an appreciative glance. She wasn't a part of this 'guild' yet, and she didn't know whether it would be important to have red's approval when she joined.

"It's disgraceful," Erza said, scowling at her, and Mira shrugged. Natsu got to his feet at this point, so there was no reason to pursue the matter further anyway.

"Alright, let's go to Fairy Tail!" Natsu grinned, charging off down the street.

 **~~~~~~Some Time Later~~~~~~**

Mirajane was feeling quite a bit better when she finally emerged from meeting the guild master, Makarov Dreyar. The old man told her that she possessed a very rare and unique kind of magic called take over. More than that, he told her that her particular form of take over allowed her to take over the souls of demons, and gain magic power by using their forms.

She'd already decided she would probably stay in this guild. After all, it was home to the first friend she'd had in forever, and she really felt like she wanted to stick around him for a while. She wanted to get to know this Natsu Dragneel who she already felt so comfortable around. She withdrew from the rest of the guild, which was currently engaged in an all-out brawl.

When the brawl was finally over, Natsu and Erza, who apparently decided not to fight each other after a couple clashes, separated. Erza headed toward the bar, and Natsu came over her way. She offered him a smile as he approached.

"How'd the meeting with gramps go, Mirajane?" He asked, a wide grin on his face.

"Great." Mirajane replied, not dropping her smile as she looked at him. "He said I have some kind of magic called take over magic. It was why I was able to get rid of the demon. Once I learn to control it better, I can make my arm human again."

"Cool," Natsu said with a grin. "But I kind of like the way it is now too."

Mira just smiled at him. She was already becoming certain that only he could say something like that with such absolute sincerity.

"Anyway," Natsu said. "I'm gonna' go home for the day soon, but since you're new and all, I thought maybe you'd want to join our team."

"Your team?" She was surprised. Was he alluding to the partnership that red said they shared?

"Yeah. Me and Erza formed a team some time ago, and I think you'd be great! Once you get used to your magic, of course."

"Umm, sure." Mira didn't know what else to say. She didn't really look forward to working with the red-headed armored freak, but she could put up with her if it gave her a chance to get to know Natsu better.

"Good," Natsu grinned at her again before turning to head out. "See you around Mira."

Mira couldn't help smiling at the way he already shortened her name to the familiar. Despite the fact that she barely knew him, it didn't bother her in the slightest. "Bye Natsu," she said with a smile.

Shortly after Natsu departed, Erza approached her. Mira sighed, turning away from the redhead toward the bar. Maybe she'd have the decency to leave her alone if she showed her she wasn't interested in conversation.

"Hey," Erza's voice cut through her thoughts as she moved around, standing between her and the bar. "There's something you need to get straight right now. Natsu's _my_ partner. So whatever little offer he made, you can forget about it. We don't need anyone else on our team. Especially a white-haired runt like you."

Mira clenched her fists under the sleeves of her cloak. Half of her was angry at the remark and ready to fight back. In fact, her mouth was open to do just that when the other half, the half that gained dominance during the months of being picked on by the villagers and called a demon, stopped her.

Maybe Natsu didn't actually want to get to know her better. Maybe, when all was said and done, he was just like everyone else, and once he got over the novelty of her demon arm he wouldn't think it was cool anymore. Maybe he would just leave her behind like everyone else had. It was pretty clear that he and red had some connection. They were partners for jobs after all, even Natsu said as much. Perhaps it was all an act, and he'd even asked Erza to warn her off so she wouldn't go with them.

So, instead of responding, Mira simply turned back to her table. She could feel the hope so recently gained slipping slowly from her grasp. In the end, this guild was another place where she just wouldn't be wanted.

It was with this mindset that Mirajane, watching her brother and sister make friends with the other children in the guild, left later that night, her cloak pulled tight around her. She turned back only for an instant at the door, a small tear coming to her eye as she looked at the scene. They would be happier here with their new friends. They didn't deserve to live the lonely life she was headed for. With one last, almost longing look, Mirajane headed out into the streets of Magnolia.

She'd made it almost halfway to the train station when she was stopped by her sister's and brother's voices.

"Mira-nee!"

"Sis!"

She turned to see both her sister and brother behind her, panting as they stopped. "We've got something to show you. We think you'll be surprised!"

"Now!"

"Animal Soul: Cat!"

"Beast Soul: Bear! Just the claw though."

Mira watched as Lisanna transformed, not changing a ton except that she now had cat ears, a tail, and paws instead of hands. Likewise, Elfman's right arm transformed into a bear's paw.

"They taught us magic, just like you!" Lisanna announced. "They said we're fast learners!"

"I can just do the arm though," Elfman said, showing his bear arm as proof. "But now you don't have to be lonely anymore."

"You two…" Mira felt the tears coming to her eyes. They went this far just to make her feel more welcome? Her thoughts turned back to Natsu even as she asked them, "Will you really be any good to the guild with magic like that though?" If her brother and sister could still see her as a good person, why was it so unbelievable that someone like Natsu would?

She didn't really hear their responses, nor did she need to. Her mind was already made up. Let Red say what she wanted. If she was interested in Natsu she was going to get to know him better, even if it meant having to be on the same team with that fat cow.

In fact, by the time the evening was over, she was looking forward to seeing Red's face when she found out that she _would_ be joining Natsu on future job requests. With or without her. Hell, maybe Erza would get so mad she would stay behind. Then she could spend all the time she wanted with Natsu without the fat cow interfering.

But most of all Mira once again dared to hope that she found a place where she could fit in.

* * *

So before anyone says anything about it, yes, I know that Mira was in the guild longer than 1 day before making her decision to leave in canon, and yes, I know that in canon Erza made attempts to connect to Mirajane early on. For those who haven't already guessed based on their interaction so far, young Mirajane's attitude toward Natsu will also be different than in canon.

Anyway, that's about all. Leave a review if you liked it. And sorry I'm too lazy to clean it up more. But between 10 hour work days, 3 kids, and a social life, I tend to be pretty busy, and I think I do pretty well to update even one story a week.


	4. Chapter 4

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. I just write about them. Mashima owns it all. Unfortunate as that may sometimes be.

To answer readers questions in reviews on another story (hopefully they're reading this as well), it was specifically the events of 507 that pissed me off. The end of 506 was a total let down, but not enough to piss me off. But 507 as a whole, especially if he takes this whole Irene/Erza deal where I think it's going, was just downright disgusting. I'm not going to say anymore right now, because the last thing I need to do is start a rant that's longer than this chapter.

So without further ado, here's chapter 4**

* * *

 **—x780—**

(A\N: No idea what time in canon this actually happened but this is where I'm putting it).

"Man, these jobs are getting too easy," Natsu complained. The youth, now 13 years old, led the most feared trio of Fairy Tail as they walked back through the rural country toward a town where they hoped to get transportation. "I barely broke a sweat taking that monster down."

"Easy for us, maybe, but it looked like the white-haired tramp was struggling." Erza agreed from behind him.

"As if! I didn't even have to use my Satan Soul. If anything miss shining armor over here seems a little winded!"

"What was that, demon bitch?"

"You heard me, fire crotch!"

Natsu sighed as the fighting erupted behind him again. As much as he loved this team, and as great as Mira and Erza were separately, together they were worse than him and Gray. Well, possibly because if he really wanted to he could end his brawls with Gray at any time, whereas Mirajane and Erza seemed almost evenly matched.

"Say it again, I dare you."

"Say what? That you're a soulless ginger who stuffs her flab into a tin can to hide it?"

"You're just jealous that I've got bigger boobs, slut."

"Like hell you do, bimbo!"

"Quiet!" Natsu suddenly became focused as another sound reached his ears. A sound that was all the more concerning with the aroma of smoke that he'd picked up some time ago. At first he figured it was just a campfire, but the smell was getting stronger by the minute and it was still a good distance away. Now he could faintly hear the sound of screaming.

"Let's go!" Before the other two could object, he took off in the direction of the noise and the smells. Even with his enhanced speed, they were running for almost 10 minutes before they reached their destination, and as they approached he slowed, his mouth dropping in horror at the sight.

The screams had stopped entirely. The only sound remaining was the crackling of the burning remnants of houses, their smoke rising to the sky. The smell of charred flesh invaded his nose, causing him to wrinkle it in disgust.

Then suddenly a sound caught his ear. Laughter. Not just any laughter. Loud, obnoxious laughter. The kind of laughter that made him want to punch someone in the face. He ran toward the noise, hearing the girls closing behind him, and came to a stop as he reached his destination.

There in front of them were 3 people. One was a skinny teen with long, spiky blonde hair. Another was a male whose age was hard to discern thanks to his rather unique appearance. Natsu's mind couldn't, or maybe didn't want to, put words to it. The third was a girl, around Mirajane and Erza's age from the looks of her, with long, black hair, pale skin, and wearing a white, black, and purple dress.

"Are you the ones responsible for this?" He asked, seething as he felt Mirajane and Erza come up behind him.

"That's right punk. You gonna' do something about it?" The blonde-haired teen asked, a smirk on his face.

"Damn right I am," Natsu said, glaring at the blonde-haired freak. His voice was really pissing him off right now. "I'm gonna' kick your pimply face in is what I'm gonna do."

"Oh yeah? Give it your best shot," he smirked. "But remember we ain't gonna' go easy on you just 'cause you're a kid. Though we might take those pretty ladies of yours with us after we beat you into oblivion. Especially that red-haired one. Mmm-mmm. I'll bet she's got an amazing ass under that armor."

"Zancrow," the girl said, rolling her eyes. "Why do you always have to talk so much?"

Meanwhile Erza's face was turning red with anger as the blonde-haired man continued to look at her as though she was a piece of meat for him to take home. Though he wasn't sure why, Natsu was getting really pissed too hearing him talk like that.

"I got this guy," Natsu said with a smirk. "You two handle the others however you want."

With that he launched his attack on the teen now identified as Zancrow. The teen was obviously not expecting the attack that fast, as he brought his hands up in a blocking motion just before the kick connected, but didn't quite get their in time to fully block. Instead, the action deflected the kick upward, toward his face. Natsu laughed as he went flying backward. "Told you I was gonna' kick your pimply face in."

Zancrow got back up, an angry light in his eyes as he glared back at Natsu. "You're gonna' pay for that, motherfucker. Flame God's Bellow!"

"Hah, I'm a dragon slayer. Fire can't hurt—" Natsu cut off as the flames impacted him, pain coursing through his body at the impact.

"H-how?!" He stuttered, glaring at his opponent in confusion. Sure, these flames were black, but the color never mattered before.

"It's because I'm a god slayer fool," Zancrow said with a smirk. "Since gods are above puny-ass dragons, our flames can still hurt and kill you, but yours can't touch me."

"We'll see about that," Natsu growled. "Fire Dragon's Roar!"

He watched as his opponent was engulfed in his strongest flames. _If his flames can hurt me, mine should be able to hurt him too._

But to his surprise, when the flames cleared Zancrow remained completely unscathed by the attack. The teen laughed at him with his super-annoying laugh.

"Told you, you can't even touch me with that puny lizard fire. Now prepare to take your beat-down." With that the other mage charged forward, hitting Natsu hard in the chest and sending him flying backward before he could react. He crashed into the side of some remaining rubble hard.

Natsu smirked as he got up, wiping some blood from his cheek. "You haven't seen my true power yet." With that, he activated his dragon force. He felt the power within him multiply, his strength increasing 10 times or more. He could sense that his magic power was now greater than Zancrows. Even if his flames still couldn't hurt the god slayer, he had plenty of physical attacks in his arsenal that would be more than enough to crush the annoying teen.

"Fire Dragon's Crushing Talon!" In this open handed move, his fingers connected like claws with the teen's chest, breaking the skin before sending him flying back at supersonic speed. Zancrow flew through a brick wall that was still standing behind him, then through another wall. Then he hit the ground, bounced, flopped over like a rag doll, and bounced again before finally coming to the stop amidst some toppled stones.

"How the fuck…" He muttered as he got slowly to his feet, battered and bleeding. "Fire God's Supper!"

Natsu was suddenly trapped in the midst of his black flames. "Now burn till you're nothing but ash!" Zancrow smirked.

"NATSU!" He heard Mirajane and Erza's voices, but wasn't too concerned. He was about to shrug off this spell before another idea came to mind. Maybe he could eat that guy's flames and learn god slayer magic too!

"Hehehe," he chuckled as he emptied himself of his magic, making his body a container for the new magic he was about to inhale. The thought that this might not work never crossed his mind. Of course it was going to work. He sucked in the black flames around him, grinning as the new magic power filled his body.

"That's… That's impossible." The disbelief in the voice of the teen across from him only made his grin widen more. Impossible, eh? Obviously not. He just underestimated his opponent. By a lot. Now, maybe he could combine the magic… "Fire dragon god's volcanic iron fist!"

Zancrow threw up his hands again to deflect, but the deflection wasn't even close to enough. The already injured teen was blasted back again, through the remains of more buildings, his body tumbling through the air and bouncing again and again off the ground.

When he finally came to a stop, Natsu watched as he struggled to push himself off the ground. His arms shook and trembled, but he managed to reach his knees. Then, shakily, he pulled his weight completely off his arms, moving to put one foot on the ground. But before he could complete the motion, he tumbled back flat on his face, unconscious.

It was then that Natsu noticed the faint sound of crying beside him. He turned to see a young girl with pink hair, her ears covered by red earmuffs or headphones, he couldn't tell which at the moment.

"Hey, it's ok…" He said, letting the flames recede around him now that Zancrow was finished. "We just got the guys who did this. Is this your village."

She nodded her head without saying a word, and Natsu felt his heart wrench at the sight. "I'm sorry we didn't get here sooner…" He whispered as he drew the child in for a gentle hug.

He let her cry for several minutes, all the while keeping a wary eye on Zancrow as he half expected the teen to awaken at any moment. When she finally stopped, he offered her a small smile. "What's your name?"

"Meredy," the girl answered, tears still streaking her face.

"Well Meredy, I'm Natsu. How would you like to come with me and my friends to our guild? It's not the family you left, but you'll love it there, and it's the only family most of us have there. There are all kinds of nice people there."

"I want to go with you," she said firmly. Natsu just smiled and offered her his hand. With the other, he grabbed Zancrow, dragging the god slayer back toward where he could pick out Erza and Mirajane's scents.

By the time he got there, the two had finished their fights and had their opponents incapacitated. Mira grinned. "It's a good thing I always keep a few pair of anti-magic cuffs handy," she said as she snapped a pair of handcuffs on Zancrow. Natsu saw that there were already cuffs on the black-haired girl and the boy.

"Their names are Ultear and Kain," Erza informed him. "They were both worthy opponents, but fortunately I was able to rightly discern that Ultear was the stronger of the two and proceed to vanquish her.

"Pff, as if. Kain was definitely the stronger one," Mirajane retorted.

"Umm, girls. This is Meredy…" Natsu stepped aside to reveal the pink-haired girl who was hiding behind his leg. "So far as I can tell, she's the only survivor."

"Oh. Hi Meredy, I'm Erza!" Erza's attitude quickly became friendly as she smiled at the young girl.

"I'm Mirajane." Mira showed a sweet smile that Natsu never would've guessed she was capable of.

"Meredy's gonna' come with us to Fairy Tail," Natsu said with a grin.

They were about to continue when a groan alerted them that one of their prisoners was beginning to stir. The black-haired girl, who was now identified as Ultear, slowly began to move, her eyelids fluttering open.

"What the hell?" She glared, jerking at the anti-magic handcuffs. "Why won't my magic work?"

"I always keep a few extra pair of those on me," Mirajane said with a giggle. "Just for people like you."

Before she could respond, another groan came from Zancrow's lips, indicating that he was finally waking up. Soon all three were awake, and Natsu, Mirajane, and Erza faced them, scowling, while Meredy hid behind Natsu.

"Now that you three are awake, we can get going." He said. "It's a two day hike to the nearest council outpost, since you destroyed all the transportation here. So let's get moving."

After a little bit of grumbling, they nodded. Erza chose to march Zancrow along, and as Natsu heard his angry retorts and cries of pain he wondered if he really should've let her take charge of him. Mira ensured that Kain kept pace, leaving Natsu in the back with Ultear.

"You know, our guild will wonder why we're not back yet and come for us," The dark-haired mage said, smirking at him. "You guys may be strong, but you're nothing compared to our master and our ace."

"We'll just have to see about that," Natsu said with a noncommittal shrug.

"We don't have to see, I know." She said. "But if you're nice to me, I might be able to convince the master to go easy on you. Maybe even let you join."

Natsu rolled his eyes. "I would never join your guild," he said simply.

"You say that now, but my guild master can make you stronger. With your magic power, I'm sure he could find a unique magic that will make you an even more powerful mage. You could even become our new ace given enough time."

"Setting aside for the moment the fact that I would never join your guild, why me?" Natsu asked.

"Honestly? Because you're cute," Ultear said with a smirk. "That combined with your magic power would make you a most welcome addition to our group."

"Cute?" Natsu grimaced. "I'm no girl, but if all you care about is 'cute' I wouldn't think Zancrow over there is what you girls consider ugly."

"Zancrow might be ok looking, but he's got all the personality of an angry toad." Ultear rolled her eyes now. "Between his laugh, his arrogance, and everything else about him, the turn-offs definitely outweigh anything his semi-decent looks give him."

"Fair enough answer, but you should know I would still never join your guild," Natsu said. "You three just killed lots of people, and worst of all you took this little girl's mother and father away from her. She'll never see them again."

He looked at Meredy, who was currently sleeping on his back, held there by a couple sturdy cloths that were tied in a criss-cross pattern, giving her a sort of seat. "I never knew my real parents. The only dad I remember is Igneel, and he's a dragon. I don't know what happened to my parents, but kids like her who have a mother and father…" He clenched his fists tightly before glaring at Ultear. "To take that away from her is unforgivable."

"You have no right to judge me," she growled, her eyes taking on an icy hint. "My mother abandoned me. She was the only family I had, and she abandoned me. I'd rather have grown up not knowing her than being abandoned like that…"

"What do you mean she abandoned you?"

"It's simple really," Ultear said. "She gave me to this magic research place. They did all kinds of things that hurt really bad. For a long time I wanted nothing more than to get out of there and back to my mother. And then I finally escaped…"

She looked away. "When I got home, I found my mother made a happy life for herself with two students – she was an ice mage you see. When I realized that she abandoned me and forgot about me, I went back to the research facility voluntarily. They made me strong enough to break out again, but by then my mother was gone. Apparently died casting a spell to save her students from some demon. So I never even got my revenge…"

Natsu shook his head. The last part of the story sounded vaguely familiar, as though he heard it somewhere before. But he couldn't dwell on that now. "How do you know she forgot about you? Did you talk to her?"

"I couldn't talk to her!" Ultear snapped. "Not after seeing her so happy to have me gone! She didn't miss me, her own daughter, in the slightest! She was so happy with those two boys she picked up from God knows where, she probably didn't even think of me anymore. Probably wanted boys to begin with."

"How do you know that if you never asked?"

"I just do!" She snapped irritably.

After that she wouldn't say another word, no matter how much Natsu tried to talk to her. Finally he sighed and gave up, focusing on the long march through the woods.

 **~~~~~~Ultear~~~~~~**

Though she didn't dare admit it to the boy, his questions struck a deep cord in her heart. How could she really know that her mother didn't love her anymore? She'd never doubted her conclusions before. Never even thought twice about them. But now the questions were there, nagging at her mind. How could she know if she never talked to her mother? If she never approached her? She'd been about to, but then she'd seen those two boys. Those two children who took her place in her mother's life and heart. She clenched her fists, her fingernails digging into her hands. How dare he question her that way? And why did she even tell him all that in the first place? She just met him today. As an enemy no less!

It all started because he was attractive. If she'd just kept her mouth shut and not invited him to her guild he never would've spoken to her. But why? Why could a few short words from a total stranger cast her heart into such turmoil?

But what if he was right? What if her mother really had cared about her? What if Ur took the students because she needed to do something with her time? What if she had gone out that day to greet her mother instead of becoming bitter? Could they have reunited? Could they have faced and killed the demon together?

Had she really been nothing more than a fool all these years?

The so vivid memories played back in her now-older mind. And what she saw surprised her. The happiness was still there, but it was tainted. There was a wistfulness to her mother's smile. A faint sadness threatening to curl the corners of her lips downward as she looked toward the rambunctious boys she called students. Her younger mind, unable to comprehend such things, hadn't noticed it. Not on that level, at least. She'd _seen_ everything, but she hadn't understood anything.

Was that the truth of things? Did she join a dark guild and pursue Zeref all because of a lie?

 _"To take that away is unforgivable…"_ How many other children lost their parents because of her actions? Or because of her guild's actions? How many children died as casualties of their quest to resurrect the dark mage?

More important, what if the world of the one true magic didn't exist? Then everything she'd done… all the crimes she committed at the order of Master Hades… it would all be for a lie. A fantasy created by mages who wanted the power they believed came with such a world. Who couldn't live with the world reality handed them.

Mages like her.

As much as she wanted to be angry at Natsu for his words, she could no longer convince herself she was right to do so. The kid never knew his parents. He never had a chance to ask them why he was left alone. She wasn't entirely sure she believed the part about the dragon, but then again he was a dragon slayer. Maybe there was some truth to that too. She'd been given a chance to reunite with her mother, at least, but she threw it away, all because she was jealous of two little kids at the time.

"Watch where you're going!" She was pulled roughly to the side, and felt a large thorny vine brush against her arm, the thorns drawing blood in a couple spots. It was then that she realized they weren't using the normal roads to reach their destination. Apparently, having heard her threat that the guild would come after them, they decided to stick to less obvious routes.

Of course the only reason Master Hades would come after them was the key of Zeref they were sent to find. He didn't care about much, if anything, else at this point. Resurrecting Zeref… That was the final goal of Grimoire Heart. But could they really create the ultimate magic world? Perhaps Hades, in his own way, was just as deceived as she was. None of them really knew his true goals. Perhaps there was something in his reality that he couldn't accept, and that was what drove him to this.

She quickly ducked under a low-hanging branch, putting a little more focus into the path. They really were taking care to stick to the deep forest. She had to give them that. Though, she also had to wonder how they planned to reach the town in two days without a road. Forests were, after all, filled with barriers and magical elements, and often took up to a week longer than well-cut paths through Fiore. But they seemed to be keeping a pretty good pace anyway.

It was much later that night when they finally stopped, clearing a place in the forest where they could rest. Ultear took the little bit of food they gave her, which wasn't bad for traveling food, and then sat silently, looking out into the forest. The other two were kept a good distance from her and each other. Something that, once again, she had to applaud the Fairies for.

Suddenly she heard someone sit down beside her, and turned to see Natsu. The little pink-haired girl was no longer clinging to him. Ultear could only assume that she was asleep again, and certainly no surprise if she was.

"What do you want?" She asked, letting a hint of irritation seep into her voice.

"I want you to change your mind," he said quietly. "You offered me a place in your guild, well, it's my turn now. Fairy Tail will take anyone, regardless of their background, as long as they can commit to moving forward to the future."

"What makes you think I want to join your pitiful guild?"

"First of all, Fairy Tail's not pitiful," Natsu said, a slight smirk on his face. "It's the best damn guild there is. But most of all, I don't think you really enjoy the life of a dark mage. I think you tell yourself that you need to do it for some reason I don't understand, but I don't think you really want to."

"Heh, even if that's true, you have to hand us over to the council."

"Yeah, but nobody knows who you are yet. We could just turn loudmouth and Fatty over."

"Except you're going to give them the same speech, eh?" Ultear smirked a little, knowing the boy would try to win them all over.

"Already did," Natsu said with a sigh, and Ultear laughed inwardly. "It seems neither of them are ready for the awesomeness of Fairy Tail."

Ultear looked down at the ground again. She was confused right now, and wasn't sure that she was in the right place to be making any decisions this major. After all, she'd barely met this person, and so far the only thing that she knew she liked about him was his appearance. Sure, he was a couple years younger than her, but he was still smoking hot.

And of course, he was strong enough to be Zancrow. That helped too.

But when she thought about it she realized there was more. The sincerity, the honesty in his eyes plagued her. It reminded her of someone she wished she could be but lost long ago. Her life now was lived entirely in lies, built on lies, and even pursuing lies. Perhaps what was so appealing about his offer was that it gave her a chance to break free…

And just like that she came to a decision. She nodded quietly, her eyes still on the ground. "I'll come with you," she said.

Natsu nodded. "Good. Now if you don't mind, I'm gonna' get some sleep. It's been a long day, and we're making better time than expected."

"Better time than expected?" She quirked an eyebrow. "Going through the forest?"

"Yep," Natsu smirked. "Surprised, eh? Well, let's just say that I've trained my dragon slayer sense till things like picking out the trail through the forest actually come easier. Part of the reason we're ahead of schedule is that the route we're taking is actually more direct. Anyway, g'night."

Well, he was full of surprises. That was for sure. She quickly held her hands out before he left all the way. "At least get me out of these things then."

"Sorry, but I can't do that yet." Natsu replied with a slight smirk. "First of all, you wouldn't want the others to think you're getting special treatment, so we're not going to release you until it's time to turn them in. Second, Mirajane has the keys, and though I probably could get them from her if I wanted to, she wouldn't be too happy to give them to me to unlock you."

"Oh really?" Ultear quirked an eyebrow. "And why is that?"

"I'm not entirely sure, really," Natsu said with a shrug. "I just know that she gets weird about girls sometimes."

Ultear smirked. So the dragon slayer was a little clueless when it came to women, it seemed. Well, in a few years she could take advantage of that. Clearly the other girls were too 'noble' to do such things. Till then, she'd just have to wait it out and get accustomed to living the life of an official guild wizard.

"Well, good night Ultear."

"Good night, Natsu," she said, a small smirk playing around her lips as she turned to watch him depart.

It was a good while later before she finally fell asleep, but when she did her dreams were a little less dark than usual.

* * *

And there we have it. Thanks to everyone who favorited, liked, and reviewed. (Over 200 favorites now wooT!) And of course, reviews are always appreciated!


	5. Chapter 5

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. Yada yada. Standard disclaimer.

So anyway, thanks again to all my wonderful readers for the favorites, likes, and reviews. :D I do appreciate reviews, especially candid reviews, to a point.

That said, I will say I'm not really a big fan of people telling me what should or shouldn't be in my plot. I realize that most people make "time travel" stories with someone who remembers all the events in the original timeline. I also realize that most of those plots end up with huge holes or without considering unintended consequences of going back and using your limited knowledge to try to "set things right." Honestly, if I were to make a "time travel" fic in which the main character were able to go back with a full working memory of the past, it would pan out as a learning experience for the character of how trying to meddle with events in the past, even with the intention of making them better, can have unintended consequences that are much worse than the past they remember.

So all that to say I'm sorry if you don't like the idea of Natsu not consciously remembering the original timeline, but it's a key part of this plot. If you want to read a "Natsu goes back in time and intentionally changes all the bad events in the past" fic, there are a few of those out there. This isn't one of them.**

* * *

"Natsu, you're back!" No sooner did they return to the guild than Natsu was tackled by a big blue ball of fur. Ultear took a step back, surprised to see the blue cat dive at the dragon slayer.

"It's good to see you too Happy. I take it that means Lisanna's around too?"

"Right here Natsu!" A cheery girl with short white hair called from a little further inside. "Happy did nothing but complain about how much he missed you while you were gone."

"You're never leaving me behind from a mission again!" The cat declare.

"Sorry Happy," Natsu said. "But you were sick from eating that bad fish. Lisanna and I both told you not to eat it."

Ultear couldn't help snickering. Apparently the cat didn't like that, since he then glared at her. "It's not funny!" He wailed. "Do you have any idea how much I suffered because of that fish?"

Then he seemed to realize something and turned back to Natsu. "Natsu, who's that?"

"Oh, Happy, this is Ultear." Natsu said with a grin. "She's gonna' join our guild."

"Cool!" Happy said with a wide grin.

Just then Meredy stirred on Natsu's back. She took one look at the cat and got a big grin. "Natsu-san, is that your kitty?"

"I guess you could say that," Natsu said, shrugging slightly.

"He's so cute!" Meredy exclaimed. "Can I pet him?!"

"Sure," Natsu smirked, grabbing Happy and holding him up against his struggling protests. Ultear couldn't help laughing as she watched them, Meredy reaching out to gently stroke Happy's fur.

"Wow, he's really soft!" She said with a grin.

"Hey, that feels pretty good," Happy said as he stopped struggling. "But who is this now?"

"Oh, this is Meredy," Natsu said. "She's joining the guild too. Her village was destroyed, so we brought her back."

"Oh." Happy looked sad to hear that.

"Natsu, I missed you too…" The silver-haired girl, Lisanna, if Ultear remembered correctly, came forward, a slight pout on her lips.

"Aaww, I missed you too Lis," Natsu said with a grin, opening one of his arms to give her a hug.

"Natsu…" Ultear turned to see Mirajane glaring at the pink-haired boy, who immediately let go of Lisanna. "You wouldn't be trying to make a move on my sister now, would you?"

"Of course not!" Natsu denied, waiving his hands in front of his face.

"Good." Mirajane said, approaching him slowly. Even Ultear found herself scared by the demonic glare on the girl's face. When she finally reached Natsu, however, the glare turned to a sweet, almost flirtatious smile. "Because the only one you should be making moves on is me."

It was at this point that Ultear actually began to feel sorry for Happy. The blue cat was now pinned between Mirajane's budding breasts and Natsu's firm, toned chest as Mira wrapped him in a huge hug. For a moment, Ultear wondered if the cat had died, but as Mira pulled away he gasped for breath.

"Perhaps later you can come to my place to train," she said, loud enough for Ultear to hear before giving him a peck on the cheek. Ultear was about to respond when she realized the comment wasn't aimed at her.

"YOU WILL KEEP YOUR SLUTTY HANDS OFF HIM, YOU DEMON!" Ultear stepped aside as Erza literally flew toward the duo, her eyes narrowed in fury.

"Ara, ara." Mirajane said with a smirk. "I didn't realize he was already taken by an armored freak."

"Wh-what? We're not together!" Erza cut her attack off immediately, blushing and obviously flustered. She didn't have too long to be flustered, though, as she was hit by a hard kick from Mirajane.

"Of course you're not," the demon of Fairy Tail said sweetly. "Because Natsu's attracted to girls with grace, and of course boobs, like me. Not loud, obnoxious, flat gingers like you."

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?!" Erza's voice raised again as she got up, charging the other girl again. Ultear just laughed as she watched the two.

"Are they always like this?" She asked Natsu. The groan she got in response was answer enough for her.

"Well, perhaps you can show me around the... EEP!" She jumped as she felt a hand squeeze her ass.

"Well Natsu, I see you only pick the best for our new members, as usual." She looked down to see a short, elderly man in what looked like a jester costume pulling his hand back from her ass. She glared at him, giving him a stinging slap across the cheek as she stepped back, putting more distance between herself and him.

"Natsu, who is this pervert?" She asked.

"That's… the guild master, Makarov Dreyar," Natsu said with a sigh. "Gramps, stop pervin' on the new members. You'll scare them away one of these days."

"My bad. Sometimes my hands just act on their own," Makarov 'explained' with a slight smirk. "So this lovely lady would like to join the guild?"

"I guess," Ultear said, still glaring at the pervy master.

"Good, good. Just get your guild marks from Lisanna then. She handles that sort of thing." He then seemed to notice Meredy on Natsu's back. "Oh. Who's this?!"

"This is Meredy," Natsu said. "Her village was destroyed, so I brought her back with me." He pulled Meredy out of the back harness he'd been using to carry her and set her down. "She wants to join too."

"Well, you're both welcome of course." Makarov said. "Now go get your guild marks from Lisanna!"

Ultear complied, asking for the white-haired girl to put her mark in dark purple on her outer thigh. After some thought, Meredy asked for hers on her right shoulder, in pink.

"Yo Natsu, I'm gonna' kick your ass!" Ultear turned to see a mage with black hair charging Natsu in his underwear. Natsu turned, igniting his fist, and punched the mage across the guild, causing him to hit the other wall hard.

Silence dropped like a blanket over the guild, conversations stopping as people turned to stare. Apparently this wasn't Natsu's usual response to the boy's attacks. And why did he look so familiar? Where had she seen him before?

"You can attack me all you want, Gray, but don't strip in front of Meredy," Natsu said with a dark glare on his face as the 5 year old clung to his leg.

Gray! The name triggered emotions she hadn't felt since that day, so that she couldn't even laugh at his surprised exclamation of bewilderment at the disappearance of his clothes. The noise in the room faded around her, her eyes focusing on events that took place long before she came to this guild. Long before she met Natsu.

 _Running. Running hard. She'd finally escaped that horrible place and found her way back to her mother. How happy she would be to see her again! The house was empty, but that didn't bother her. It was her house, after all. And unlike the magic facility, it was safe._

 _When her mom came in she would tell her everything. Everything those horrible people had done to her. Her mom was really strong after all. She'd never let them get away with hurting her. She would know exactly what to do about those people…_

 _It seemed like hours that she waited, huddled there in the darkness. Her eyes threatened to close despite her best efforts, sleep threatening to take her. Then the door opened, and she jerked up. "Mom…" The word died before it had a chance to escape, and her mouth snapped shut. Her mom wasn't alone. Through a crack in the door she could see two young boys bickering. One with black hair, the other with silver-white hair. Had her mom abandoned her and found new, better children? As she fled from the house, she remembered the names that her mother called them as she reprimanded them for fighting. Lyon. Gray. Names she would never forget…_

So that was it. After all that time, fate had brought her to the place where he was. One of the students who took her place in her mother's heart. She could take her revenge so easily now.

 _Suddenly she was transported back to the moment, and as she fled from the house Natsu's words rang in her ears. "How do you know that if you never asked?" She looked again, and suddenly saw the whole scene with adult eyes. Her mother, separated from her for months, seeking to fill the void that the separation left in her heart._

Tears came to her eyes, and she quickly turned away from the guild. If only she acted differently back then. If she returned to her mother instead of running back to the facility. Things would be so much different. Maybe her mother would even be alive… She could've helped with the battle against Deliora, or at the very least she could've restrained Gray from going out to attack the beast.

"Mom…" The word escaped her in a strangled whisper, and she found her hands reaching out into the emptiness around her. The emptiness that was reflected within her soul. Her purpose was gone. Her hatred was gone. Everything that consumed her time, her energy, since then, all vanished in the shadow of that stupid question. But how could she have been so blind? How could she have chosen this path without even stopping to discover her mother's feelings?!

She could no longer look back on the event with the bitterness her heart once held. That was the problem with opening your eyes – you could actually see. And now that her eyes were open, it was impossible to close them again. But now guilt replaced the bitterness. Guilt and sorrow. She'd caused herself, and possibly even gray and Lyon, so much unnecessary pain.

"Hey!" The warm hand on her shoulder jolted her back to reality, and she turned to see Natsu's onyx orbs, narrowed slightly in concern. "Everything alright?"

"Just peachy," she scowled, shrugging his hand off her shoulder.

"No seriously," Natsu's hand gripped her shoulder again, and she looked up into his face. "What's wrong Ultear?"

She was about to shut him out, just like she shut out everyone else in her life. Shut them out because she didn't want to get hurt again. But something stopped her. Perhaps it was the sincerity in his eyes as he looked at her. Perhaps it was the charming, almost childish enthusiasm with which he faced the world and accepted everything at face value. Maybe it was just because he'd been the one to initially trust her enough to ask if she would join his guild. Hell, maybe it was just the fact that, for a guy a couple years younger than her, he was smoking hot. [No pun intended – or is there?]. For some reason, she felt like she could open up to him.

"It's my mother," she admitted, turning to face him fully. "When I heard you call Gray's name, I was reminded of her…"

"Gray…" Natsu looked at her, confused. Then she watched as understanding almost literally clicked in his eyes. "Wait – your mother was Gray's teacher?!"

She couldn't help giggling a little. "You've known Gray for how long and you didn't even figure that out?"

"Umm… No. I don't really know much about his teacher except that she taught him to be a stripper."

"Hey!" She smacked him lightly on the back of the head. "Don't talk about my mom that way!"

"Sorry," he rubbed his head sheepishly. "Anyway, go on…"

"Well," she sighed, "Just thinking about how stupid I was. I had a chance to be reunited with my mother. To have a good relationship with her. And here I just blew it because I was jealous of her students. I went back and let them torture me again just for revenge… And there was no reason for any of it. Maybe… Maybe if I stayed with her instead of running back, she would still be alive." Her lip was quivering at this point, a flood of tears pressing against her eyes, trying to escape and cascade to the ground.

What happened next she was definitely not expecting. A warm hand grasped her shoulder and pulled her close, and two arms wrapped gently around her. She buried her face in his vest as the dam burst, allowing the tears to flow freely down her face and onto his shoulder. Her body shook in his arms, the tears continuing to pour down her cheeks as though every drop that she hadn't cried for her mother in the last few years was now escaping her in this one moment. Throughout it all, Natsu remained silent, letting her tears work themselves out before she finally heard his voice.

"You can't go back and change the past," he said quietly. "But you also can't hold onto the blame and guilt of the past. I don't think your mother would want you to. She loved you, and she would want you to be happy in life. Hold on to your happy memories of her. Remember the mother that loved you. And be proud that she died defending people she cared about. It wasn't your fault that she died. She made her own choices, and if you were there it would've only made her resolve more firm."

"But I never got the chance to tell her I loved her…" Ultear mumbled, her face still buried in the dragon slayer's shoulder.

"So tell her now. She's waiting to hear it in the next life. I'm sure of it."

Ultear didn't know what to say. Despite her own questions about what happened to people when they died, she somehow felt encouraged by his words. She knew the guilt and regret wouldn't disappear overnight, but she felt like he had given her a way to let go of them. She breathed out slowly into his chest, snuggling a little closer.

Then she caught sight of Mirajane glaring in their direction, and she couldn't help letting her lips turn up to a slight smirk at the girl. She began rubbing the hand that was pressed against his abs, feeling his already well-toned muscles and imagining what they would look like in a few years. What they would feel like against her own naked skin.

"STOP THINKING PERVERTED THINGS ABOUT NATSU!" She stepped back just in time to avoid a vicious kick, matching Mirajane's glare as she dropped into a fighting stance.

"Who says I was thinking perverted things, flattie."

She heard Erza snort behind her as Mirajane's aura darkened. "What. Did. You. Just. Call. Me?" the demoness said, accentuating each word as she invaded Ultear's personal space, her face only inches from hers.

"I called you a flat-chested whore. And brush your teeth! Your breath smells like dirty Vulcan dick."

The rest of the guild cowered away from them, and Mira attacked. Ultear smirked as she blocked the attack, striking back at her opponent, who similarly blocked. Soon they were both locked in a brawl, though Ultear noticed that Mirajane wasn't using magic, so she kept her magic at bay as well.

After a few minutes of throwing and blocking punches, kicks, and unnamed attacks involving various parts of the body, Ultear stepped back, panting. Mira was looking at her, an appraising glare in her eyes.

"Not bad for a perverted slut. I think you might be almost as strong as the flat-chested ginger over there."

Almost immediately Erza was there. "What did you call me? And why are you fighting?"

"We're fighting because she was thinking perverted things about Natsu," Mira replied. "And I called you a flat-chested ginger with no ass. It's no wonder none of the guys look twice at you."

"Pervert. Whore. Pervert. Whore." Erza kept looking from Ultear to Mira, stuttering as her eyes started looping.

"WATCH OUT, SHE'S GONNA' BLOW!" A random guild member yelled.

"YOU BOTH MUST DIE!" Erza charged in, and a three way brawl ensued.

 **~~~~~~NATSU~~~~~~~**

Natsu sweat-dropped as he watched the girls fight and call each other names. And to think Erza was the one who tried to stop him from fighting Gray back when he first joined. He just shook his head, Almost wishing Laxus was around so he could punch the lightning mage's annoying face a couple times.

"Natsu-san…" He felt a tug at his vest, and looked down to see Meredy looking up at him with very serious eyes. "Why are they trying to kill each other."

"Oh. They're not really trying to kill each other," Natsu explained with a grin. "They're just mad so they say things like that. Don't worry, eventually they'll stop fighting and they'll all be fine."

"Oh, ok." Meredy smiled brightly at him. He returned the smile before turning toward the bar.

"Geez. I feel like I haven't eaten in a week. Get me some flaming steak!" He called out.

A few minutes later the bar tender [A/N, don't really know/remember who the bartender was before Mirajane "lost" her magic temporarily, and I don't plan to give him/her a name in this fic] brought out a large plate that was on fire. Natsu quickly gobbled down the fire and the steak before burping loudly. The noise of the brawl still filled the guild, though nobody dared join the trio.

"Natsu-san…" Natsu looked down to see Meredy looking at him again. "Can I call you 'big brother?'"

Natsu grinned. "Sure Meredy, if that's what you want. You'd be a great sister!"

"Yay!" She cheered. "Natsu-nii, I want to go shopping."

"Gah – fine," Natsu said. "Come on Happy!"

"I'm right here!" It was then that he noticed that Meredy was squeezing the blue cat in a bone-crushing hug.

"Alright, let's go!" Natsu headed out of the guild with Meredy next to him. As he was going out, he vaguely wondered if he should ask for help picking out clothes for Meredy, but dismissed the thought quickly. After all, how hard could shopping for a 5 year old be?

Once they got to the downtown area, Natsu honed in on a shop labeled "Children's Fashion." They went inside, and Meredy's eyes turned to stars as soon as she saw the wall of dresses. She ran over and immediately started looking at the dresses.

"Natsu-nii, I want this one! She called, holding out a cute little pink and white sleeveless dress that was about 3 sizes too big for her. "Ooh, and that looks nice too," she added, pulling down another sleeveless dress that was darker pink with gray and black trim. "And this one." She added, pulling down yet another pink dress, this one without any patterns or other colors on it.

"Alright, alright," Natsu said with a sigh. He took the dresses, which were all different sizes, and went up to the shopkeeper.

"Do you have these in a size that would fit her?" He asked, pointing toward Meredy as he held out the dresses.

"What size is she?" The shopkeeper asked.

"I don't know," Natsu said with a shrug. "That size?" He pointed to her again.

The shopkeeper just rolled her eyes at him and went over to Meredy. "Can you come over here? She asked, motioning to what looked like a big measuring stick on the wall. "I want to see what kind of clothes will fit you."

"Sure!" Meredy grinned, following the woman to the wall. The woman measured her height first, then took out a quick tape to measure her waist.

"She's just a normal children's 6," the girl replied. "I'll go see if I can find these in that size. In the meantime, think about whether there's anything else she might need."

Natsu blinked. What else would she need? Three dresses was more than enough for her to wash them and cycle through them throughout the week. Plus there was the dress she was already wearing…

Maybe she needed some clothing more suited to fighting. Yes, that must be it. Natsu quickly went to the section where the children's pants, shorts, and shirts were. "Meredy, pick out some of these," he said.

She nodded happily and picked out some cute shorts and shirts. When she was done, Natsu decided to search for the size "6" that the lady said she would fit. He found some in the colors she picked, and put the rest back. By that time the shopkeeper was back out with the dresses.

"If you're getting clothes for her, make sure she has _all_ the necessities," the woman said when she saw the stack of clothes Natsu put on the counter.

"Like what?" Natsu asked, looking over everything. He was sure that he covered everything she might need for fighting. He even picked out some new shoes for her!

"I don't see any underwear here," the woman said bluntly. "Were you planning on your little sister going commando?"

Natsu flushed as he realized his mistake. "NO – of course not!" He quickly ran to the girl's underwear, and grabbed a 6 pack of pink, white, and black panties in the same size as the clothes. Then he brought it back, rubbing the back of his head in embarrassment. "Sorry, guess I just wasn't thinking about these things."

"It's probably because Natsu never changes his underwear!" Happy piped up with a grin.

"I DO TOO!" Natsu yelled, shooting a glare at the cat.

The shopkeeper just took the items and rang them up. "That'll be 30,000 Jewel."

"30,000?!" Natsu stared at the pile of clothing as if it were the devil. "That's like half a month's rent around here!"

"Look sir, if you've got the money, give me the 30,000 jewel. Otherwise, you're gonna' have to put some stuff back."

Natsu sighed, fishing out the money and handing it to her. It wasn't like it really hurt his wallet. After all, he was an S class mage with Fairy Tail, but it still felt like a lot of money for some children's clothing.

After they left, he headed back toward his house, Meredy and Happy in tow. Soon they arrived at the makeshift building. When they came in, Natsu was slightly embarrassed by the state of the house.

"Eh… Happy and I are gonna' clean up quick!" He said, Then he stopped. "Scratch that. I'm gonna' clean up quick. You and Happy play out here till I'm done."

"Ok Natsu-nii!" Meredy said happily, grabbing Happy whose soul escaped through his mouth as she squeezed him. "Kitty and I will have lots of fun!"

Natsu nodded and headed inside, quickly shoving all the garbage into the trash, throwing his dirty stuff in a laundry hamper, and stuffing the clean stuff quickly into his dresser. Then he headed to the kitchen, sweeping the crumbs off the floor first and dumping them in the garbage, then putting all the dirty dishes from before he left on his quest in the sink. Then he washed the table and the countertop, and finally he washed the dishes. After that he headed to the bathroom and picked his dirty towel up, throwing that in the hamper as well. He made sure the shower was clean as well,

When he was done, he looked at his bed and sighed. They hadn't bought a bed for Meredy while they were out. Well, the couch it is.

"Alright Meredy, you can come in now!" he said,, and Meredy came running in from her play, Happy still squeezed tight in her arms.

The rest of the night went well, and soon everyone was asleep. Natsu on the couch, Meredy on the bed, and Happy in his little hammock.

 _Natsu lay panting on the ground, barely able to keep his eyes open. Bodies lay all around. Bodies of people he knew. People he loved. Some of them were older, though he couldn't understand why. But their identities were undeniable. Erza, with her long scarlet hair dyed even darker. Mirajane, her beautiful white hair matted with blood. Even the stripper freak, his body broken and twisted on the ground. There were also others that Natsu didn't know, yet somehow felt that he did. A teen girl with long blue hair. Another girl with blonde hair. Another girl with blue hair, this one older than the first. And there was also another man with some odd piercings and long, black hair._

 _Even gramps was gone. Everyone lay fallen around him, as a man with black hair looked at him with scorn and contempt._

 _"I guess you weren't strong enough, Natsu… No one can stop me now," he said. Natsu shivered. He felt like he somehow knew this man, but he was sure he'd never seen him before. Yet the ominous magic power that he radiated scared him. He knew he wasn't going to be able to win this battle, even if he could move. He groaned, trying fruitlessly to get up._

Natsu woke up, sweating. A dream. It was nothing but a dream. He breathed deeply, trying to get the images of the broken bodies out of his mind. Trying to push away the nagging feeling that it was all because he wasn't strong enough. Even though he knew it wasn't real, his mind and body were reacting as though it were. His heart was beating faster, his lips parched and slightly swollen.

One thing he didn't understand was why Erza and Mira were older in this dream. And where was Meredy? Or Ultear? The other people he cared about – even people he didn't know – were there. So why weren't they? It seemed a strange dream, and what was with the black haired man who called him by name? Why did the image strike fear and unrest into him?

Natsu sighed as his heart rate slowed, noticing the bright moonlight. The moon was full. If urban legends were to be believed, that meant magic was at its strongest right around now. Especially light magic. Though the magic council neither confirmed nor denied the stories, the legends that were passed down in the villages said that light magic was strongest around the time of the full moon, while dark magic found its strength around the new moon. They said it was earthland's way of balancing magic. But Natsu didn't really know what to believe about it.

With another sigh he forced his eyes shut, calming his breathing more. He spread his heat into the blankets, pulling them up around him, and let their warmth pull him once more into sleep. No dream was going to keep him down.

 _Natsu gasped as his eyes fluttered open. He was there again, on the wasteland that was a battlefield. Only this time he wasn't in his own body, but looking down on it. Once again he saw them. Mira, Erza, Gray, Elfman, Lisanna. The strange people he didn't know. Only from this angle he could better see their bodies. Brutally scored and beaten. Some of them had bones sticking out from their legs or arms. Gray's guts were spilling out of his stomach, and Levy was sliced clean in half._

 _Further away, beyond his earlier field of vision, lay a man with blue hair and a red tattoo on his face. Near him lay a beautiful young woman with long, pink hair. Scattered around them were another stranger with red hair, two girls with white hair, one of whom looked a lot like Lisanna, and several others who he didn't recognize._

 _At the center of the desolation stood the black haired man. Next to him a woman with long, red hair who looked a lot like Erza, and an older man with white hair and a beard. The three of them surveyed the carnage with satisfaction._

 _"Why am I seeing this again?!" Natsu put his hands to his head, trying to force himself back awake. "Why am I having this dream again?! Why are we older? Who are all these people I don't know? And why does it feel like I know them?!"_

 _"Because you must get stronger." A deep voice echoed. Natsu looked around, but nobody was there. "You must get stronger, Natsu Dragneel. You are not progressing fast enough."_

 _"Who are you?!" Natsu called out, weirded out by the strange voice talking to him in his dream._

 _"Who I am is of no concern. It matters only that I can tell you that you must grow stronger. Otherwise everyone you love will die."_

 _"What do you mean? What do you know of this? And what are you doing in my dreams?"_

And just like that he jolted awake like that, his body once again covered in sweat. For some reason he knew with an absolute certainty that everything the voice told him was true. He needed to get stronger. Perhaps the dream was a premonition. A vision of the future that would come about if he failed in his mission.

He looked at his clock. Only 4:00 A.M. But he couldn't go back to sleep. He had too much on his mind. He got up, looking quietly at the sleeping Meredy and the sleeping Happy. Then he made up his mind. He couldn't get strong enough fast enough in the guild. He would have to push himself harder, and that meant he needed to leave the guild for a while to train.

He then looked at Meredy, sleeping peacefully on his bed, a content smile on her little face. Should he leave her behind? There were lots of great people at the guild who would take care of her, and he was bound to face danger wherever he went. It wasn't going to be a journey for a 5 year old…

He lowered his hand gently, touching the top of her little head. She smiled wider in her sleep, her head nuzzling back against his hand. "I love you big brother," she murmured through her soft, even breathing.

For Natsu that was it. He couldn't leave her behind! Not after promising her that he would be there. That only left one thing. She would have to come with him. As much as he hated to bring a young girl on such a mission, it was his only option. She'd just lost her parents, and he could only imagine what it would do to her if he just walked out on her. She would probably never trust him, and maybe not anyone else, again.

And then there was Happy. He'd promised the cat he would bring him with him from now on. If he left him with Lisanna, he'd be breaking another promise. And that was something he couldn't do. He sighed. Happy would have to come too, which meant someone else he would have to watch out for when they ran into danger.

But a promise was a promise. Natsu slipped quietly out the door toward the guild, his mind made up. He'd have to leave something for the master so people didn't worry about him, after all. It didn't take him long to reach the guild, and soon he was inside.

He'd just finished writing the note when he heard footsteps behind him. He started, his nose twitching as he recognized gramps' smell.

"What''re you doing here so early gramps?" He asked, putting a jovial smile on his face.

"I'm often here early," Makarov responded, looking at him seriously. "This is the only time I have to deal with tedious things like council paperwork without being interrupted by you brats."

"I see. Well, I'll be off then," Natsu said, waving to him as he started off.

"Natsu, wait."

With a groan, he turned back toward the guild master. "What is it gramps?"

"Why are you here so early?" Makarov asked. "I know you often get here before most other members, but I've never seen you here this early in the morning."

Natsu shrugged. "No real reason, gramps. Just couldn't sleep."

"Mmm-hmmm…" He didn't sound convinced as he grabbed the note Natsu hastily laid down. "So why are you writing a note saying you're leaving on a training journey?"

 _He read it that fast?!_ "Oh… Well… There you have it," Natsu said, unsure what else to say.

Makarov just nodded, looking at the dragon slayer. "Natsu, it's my firm belief that I cannot stand in the way of what you feel you must do. If you feel you need to get stronger, that is the path you must follow. But I have some advice for you, if you are willing to listen."

Natsu just shrugged his shoulders. "Perhaps."

Makarov nodded. "Far to the north and east there is a land that is bitterly cold. So cold that it's said normal humans can't last even a day in the conditions there. It's beyond the snow mountains where the ice mages train, and it's said even the strongest of the ice mages fear to go to those mountains. If I were you, that's where I would go. There's no better way to harden your fire and strengthen yourself."

Natsu blinked. The old man actually offered him some good advice. He couldn't wait to go out there, and not only that he could rub it in Gray's face when he returned!

"Thanks Gramps," he grinned. "I'll do that." He then started out again.

"Farewell Natsu. Come back to us soon," Makarov said quietly.

"Don't worry Gramps, I'll be back before you know it," Natsu said with a wide grin. "Just make sure the others know I'm not gone forever… Oh, and try to keep Erza, Mira, and Ultear from destroying the place."

"Destroying…" Makarov's eyes widened as he considered the implications of Natsu not being around to break up the girls' fights. "WAIT!" He called, his spirit coming out of his mouth like a ghost. But Natsu was already gone.

A few minutes later Natsu shook Happy awake, then put a drowsy Meredy on his back.. Then he was off, as quickly as his legs would carry him.

By the time the sun rose, the train had borne them far away from Magnolia, taking them as close as they could get to the frozen mountains.

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So there's chapter 5. Hope you liked it. Read and drop a review if you like, or if you don't like. I'm off to my pillow o.O


	6. Chapter 6

**I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. They all belong to Mashima.

So here's chapter 6 of this story. For those of you waiting for updates on other stories, I promise I'll do at least one or two before I update this again. I've decided from now on I'm only going to work on one or two at a time (after I finish my current stories, that is). More than that just makes it take forever between updates.

But anyway, here's chapter 6. Hope you enjoy. Thanks for all the follows, favorites, and reviews!**

* * *

Ultear couldn't keep a small smile off her face as she hustled into the guild. It was her first morning as an official Fairy Tail wizard, as well as her first morning that she could truly say the burden on her heart was lightened. It was a good morning in every sense of the word.

To top it off, it didn't look like anyone else would be here yet. And yesterday she learned from Lisanna that Natsu was almost always the first one at the guild! This would be her chance to get some time with the dragon slayer without the white-haired bitch and the ginger cow around. She didn't care if he was only 14. 2 years was so small as to make no real difference anyway, and he was by far the cutest guy she'd met in a long time! If she played her cards right, she had no doubt she would be able to snatch him right out from under the other girls' noses.

"Good morning master," she said cheerfully as she came through the door. Makarov was sitting near the bar, a mug containing some kind of alcohol already in his hand.

"Ah, good morning Ultear. You're here early," he said, looking at her briefly.

"Of course." Ultear said with a grin. She was about to add 'I wanted to be here before Natsu arrives,' but then thought better of it. The old man might think it fun to clue Mirajane and Erza in on her plans to take Natsu, and that would make things a lot harder for her. So instead she went with, "You're starting awfully early today."

"I have to, or I'd never be able to deal with you brats and the council," the master said as he chugged the rest of his drink. Ultear could only look at him in disbelief that he would say something like this to a new member.

Oh well, it wasn't like she particularly needed his approval anyway. And so far Fairy Tail proved to be as much fun as Natsu said it would be, so she wasn't complaining. Of course, she would eventually be forced to talk to Gray… She wasn't looking forward to that conversation, but since they were in the same guild it was now inevitable.

Then of course there was the little matter of Jellal. A small frown played across her face as she thought of the blue-haired mage. Should she go find him and tell him everything that happened in the past? He was sure to be confused right now. Since deciding to pursue Fairy Tail, she'd let go of the possession spell.

Nah… That was too much work. Sure, he must be confused, but he would sort it out. It was kind of better this way. Now she could just let him follow whatever path he chose without trying to control his decisions for better or worse from this point forward.

"Morning perv," She looked up to see Mirajane coming through the doors. So the white haired goth slut beat Natsu here? Was she trying to make her move on the dragon slayer at this time?

"Morning slut," she responded quickly, not missing a beat.

"You're lucky I'm in such a good mood today, or I'd knock your face in for that."

"Yeah? I'd like to see you try," Ultear smirked, but her face didn't reflect what she was feeling at the moment. Why was the demon in such a good mood this morning? Did something happen between her and Natsu? Had she already made her move on the younger dragon slayer? Was it already too late to lay claim to him?

"Master, have you seen Natsu?" Ultear felt relief wash over her when she heard the question. She hadn't made her move yet, but she was planning it. Yes, she was certainly planning it.

"Natsu won't be at the guild for a while. I'll tell you the rest when—"

The doors burst open again, and Erza came in carrying a large platter of steaks. "Natsu, I've brought you breakfast today!" She announced cheerfully, probably unable to see anything over the enormous mound of meat that completely obscured her face from Ultear's view.

"He's not even here you blind cow," Mira said before anybody else could interject.

"He's not?" Erza set down the plate of steaks on a nearby table and looked around. "But he's always here by this time…" Suddenly she turned her glare on Mira. "What are you doing here this early, demon bitch?"

Mira sneered, moving closer to Erza till their foreheads were practically touching. "Maybe I'm hoping to find him in heat, cow."

Erza's face reddened quickly till it was almost the same shade on her hair. Ultear watched in amusement as she began sputtering, thrown off by the unexpected response.

"You.. Him.. Heat.. Innocence… DIE!" From the words that were spoken, Ultear could at least basically follow her train of thought.

"STOP BRATS!" Two giant hands came between the girls, blocking their imminent attacks. Both turned, surprised, to look at Makarov.

"I have something to tell all three of you, and it pertains to Natsu." He said, his hands and arms returning to normal size as he sat at the bar.

"Oh? Something about Natsu?" Erza's face brightened at that, her momentary conflict forgotten. Ultear did her best to look bored, even though she was anxious to see what the guild master knew about Natsu's absence. Had something bad happened? Was he sick? Or maybe he was just sleeping in today.

"Natsu left this morning to go on a training journey," Makarov said. "He left two notes. One for the guild, and another one for the three of you. I'm actually glad you all showed up early, because it saves me the trouble of calling you into my office. Here."

He handed three notes out, one to each girl, and Ultear quickly grabbed the one that was given to her. It took her only a moment to unfold it, and she began reading.

Ultear,

I'm sorry that I'm leaving right after bringing you to the guild, but what can I say? Recent events made me realize I'm not as strong as I need to be. Don't worry, I won't be gone too long, and the guild is great. I'm sure you'll be fine.

I've taken Meredy and Happy with me, so don't worry about them. I'm really glad you joined Fairy Tail and I'll be looking for you when I get back!

And that was it. A short note and a signature at the bottom. Ultear crumpled the paper in her hands. How dare he bring her back and then run off on some random trip?! He brought the little girl and the cat with him. Wouldn't it make more sense for him to bring strong wizards to train with?

And if that wasn't bad enough, the only people she really knew in the guild were the demon slut and the ginger cow. She would be forced to jump in and try to make new friends, hwen she thought she already had at least one solid friend!

"I will stop him!" The declaration from nearby was accompanied by a loud thump of an armored fist hitting the table, causing Ultear to jump.

"Like hell you will. If anyone's going to find Natsu it'll be me!" Mira yelled.

"I believe I'll have to drag that pink-haired dragon slayer back here and give him a piece of my mind," Ultear declared her own intention to go after Natsu.

"You shouldn't go after him." She stopped and turned when she heard Makarov's voice from the bar.

"What do you mean, master?" It was Erza who spoke. Ultear turned to see that the ginger was seething, as though barely restraining her from running out the guild doors.

"Two things. First, you won't find Natsu. I'm sure of that. He's made a decision, and as a dragon slayer he'll have no problem staying out of sight. Going after him would be fruitless.

"But if you really want to do something useful, you could seek to get stronger yourselves. Natsu will be a lot stronger when he gets back, and I'm guessing the three of you don't want to fall behind him – or each other."

"Tch." Ultear turned away as she headed out. "I don't need to work on getting stronger to be a match for these sluts."

"Oh yeah pervert? Who kicked your ass before we brought you to this guild?" Erza glared.

"I'll kick either of your asses anytime. But I have nothing to worry about. Natsu's not the type to go for a flat chested ginger or a perverted cow," Mira said as she started out.

"More like he's not the type to go for a demon slut!" Erza yelled. "Natsu has been with me longer than anyone else, so it's only right that I be the one to bring him back!"

"Did you not listen to anything master Makarov said?" Ultear asked incredulously.

"Sh-shut up!" Erza's face turned red. "Of course I heard what he said. I meant when he's ready to come back, I'll be the one to bring him back." She nodded her head as she spoke.

"Whatever. I'm off to train, so when Natsu does return I can show him who's the best pair for him by kicking both your asses."

"Like hell you will! I'll train harder!" Both Mirajane and Erza yelled, and all three sprinted for the guild doors.

Makarov just leaned back, watching the three go. Yep, it was going to be interesting when they returned…

"You know there'll be nobody to stand up to Laxus now." Makarov jumped when Gildarts' voice sounded right behind him. Then his eyes popped out at the implications.

"NOOOO COME BACK!" He yelled, but it was too late. The girls were already gone, and the only person who heard was Gray, who was just coming in for the morning. He gave him a quizzical look before hurrying to the job board, hastily taking a job request, and running out.

 **~~~~~~Council Prison~~~~~~**

"When's the fucking master gonna' break us out of this shithole anyway?" Zancrow was extremely annoyed. He expected to be in jail for a couple hours at most before Hades learned their location and broke them out of the pathetic excuse for a jail. Yet here he was, 2 days later, still looking at the same shitty walls, sitting on the same fucking rocks.

He hadn't seen Ultear or Kain since they brought him to the council. That pissed him off too. Instead of bringing them in and incarcerating them together, the Fairy Tail faggots brought them one at a time to the council outpost, and the council imprisoned him far enough away from the others that he could neither see nor hear them.

"Fucking let me out already you fucking creeps!" He yelled as he heard a guard approaching. "Maybe I'll show some mercy to you maggots when we revive Zeref and bring in the world of great magic."

"He's so fucking annoying. I think we should just kill him and say it was an accident," one of the guards said.

"You know we can't do that!" The other guard replied. "This place is closely monitored. We'd be fired at best, and at worst in prison where he is now."

"HEY FUCKERS!" He yelled. "QUIT IGNORING ME!"

The guards just kept walking, and Zancrow turned back to the wall, punching it with his bare fist.

"Damn those Fairy Tail faggots. When I see them again those fuckers are all dead. Well, I'd fuck the white-haired one first. Hell, I might even fuck the redhead cunt. Fuck 'em both together before I kill 'em. I could even make the pink-haired faggot watch."

"HEY KAIN! YOU OUT THERE SOMEWHERE?" He waited for several moments, but no response came. "ULTEAR? YOU AROUND?" Again, nothing.

"Goddammit where the fuck is Hades? I'm going fucking crazy in here."

After keeping this routine up for several more minutes, Zancrow jumped back when a huge explosion broke the ceiling above his cell area to tiny bits. He looked up just in time to see a large man with dark blue hair, white, blue, and black clothes, and a blue cape jumping from an airship above him. The man landed in his cell. "Let's go, shithead."

"Bluenote," Zancrow sneered. "Still acting all high and mighty I see."

With that he jumped up, using his god slayer magic to propel him the rest of the way into the airship. There he saw Kain, who apparently had already been rescued by the guild.

"Alright, let's get going." Hades said.

"Wait. Where's Ultear?" Zancrow didn't want to leave without Ultear. She was his best chance of getting laid anytime in the near future after all.

"Ultear wasn't here," Hades replied grimly. "Furthermore, her magic signature is no longer connected to us, so I am unable to trace it."

"You mean she's dead?!" Zancrow shrieked.

"I mean she no longer considers herself affiliated with this guild," Hades replied.

"Impossible!" Zancrow could barely restrain from punching the old geezer. "Ultear would never betray us!"

Hades looked off into the distance. "Some people's hearts are not as strong as yours, Zancrow. She allowed herself to be swayed from following the true path. If we see her again, we must consider her an enemy."

"That fucking bitch," Zancrow said, after taking a moment to process it. She now went on the list with the that ginger and the white-haired bitch from Fairy Tail. "If I see her again I'm gonna kick her ass. Then fuck the shit out of her. Then fucking kill her. FUCK!"

"Where are we going, master?" Only when Kain asked this question did Zancrow notice that their path did not seem to be leading back to their usual base of operations.

"Ultear had an asset, which I believe she recently released. We have only a small window to acquire that asset, and I intend to do it."

 **~~~~~~Far to the Northeast~~~~~~**

"It's cold, Natsu-nii!"

Natsu reached out, letting his flames envelop Meredy to warm the air around her. His magic also reached out to Happy, keeping the cat from freezing to death.

He was frankly surprised that it took this much of his magic energy just to keep them warm. Even on Mt. Hakobe, one of the coldest regions nearby, he could keep himself and several others warm without exerting much effort. This cold was like nothing he'd ever felt before. In fact, he almost felt cool from it.

This wasn't good. He would have to find some way to get out of the cold before nightfall, because there was no way that he was going to be able to use his fire to keep them warm all night. In fact, he wasn't even sure he would be able to last the rest of the day. As they trudged through the snow, which easily came up to 3 feet in some places, the temperature just seemed to keep dropping.

Suddenly he felt something hard brush against him, and he lashed out to the side, his fist connecting with what felt like solid rock. An angered roar erupted as a gaping mouth suddenly materialized from the snow next to them, and two black spots that could only be nostrils above the mouth.

Meredy and Happy both jumped back, scared, but Natsu had only one thing on his mind. This was an animal, and a big one at that! That meant food! "FIRE DRAGON'S ROAR!" He unleashed a powerful roar on the creature, straight down the open mouth, which snapped shut almost immediately after the attack. He then delivered a devastating killing strike to the top of the head, and the creature fell lifeless.

"Heh, that was easy." He smirked, while rubbing his hand slightly. Even that second strike that killed the beast felt as though he were hitting a rock wall. "Now we just need to find shelter."

"Wow Natsu-nii! You're amazing!" Meredy said with a wide grin.

"Thanks Meredy. I am pretty awesome, aren't I!" Natsu grinned at her, then turned back to the creature he'd just killed. But wait. Where did it go? He looked around frantically, unable to find his planned food supply. He was sure it was dead! He would just have to search the area!

But as he took his first step, his foot struck something hard. Bending down, he realized that the creature was dead, and still right in front of him. It's hard exterior, which was hard and smooth as steel to the touch, was a slightly mottled white and very light gray, mimicking the pattern of the snow that surrounded them. It wasn't till he started to try to lift the creature that he realized how heavy it was.

"Well, if it is edible, we've got our food supply for the week," he said with a wide grin. "So it'll totally be worth dragging along."

Despite his optimistic outlook, he quickly realized that he wouldn't last long in the cold at this rate. Between dragging the creature, the size of which he hadn't yet fully measured, through the snow behind him and trying to keep Meredy and Happy warm enough, he wasn't even sure he could make it till they found shelter.

He was almost ready to give up when he noticed something odd – a dip in the snow around 100 feet to the right of their current path. Almost like a hollow, with a slight increase on the other side of it. Pulling the creature behind him, with Meredy now riding on his back and Happy on his shoulder, He headed in the direction of the hollowed out snow.

When they got closer he wasn't disappointed. Barely peeking up through the drifted snow was the top of an opening. An opening that led down into the ground, if he was correct. Furthermore, it hadn't been used in some time, or so it seemed from the snow that was drifted around it. There were no footprints of any kind, at least, an the snow looked as though it were untouched.

His first attempt to step through failed, as the snow was packed into hard ice at the bottom. But by increasing the heat around his feet, he was able to quickly melt through the ice. He then melted the ice around the entire opening, which proved to be even larger than he anticipated. Nearly 10 feet in diameter, the hole led at a steep slant into the ground below.

Dragging the beast behind him, he descended into the hole quickly. It went down about 50 feet, then did an abrupt u-turn, still heading in a downward direction, and descended another 100 feet or so. There it opened up into a large space, almost like a den, and two paths could be seen heading deeper into the earth from there.

"This is obviously something's home," Natsu said, noticing that he no longer felt cool. The cave was enough to take the chill out of the air, but no more. When he allowed his magic to recede from Meredy and Happy, they instantly started shivering and pressed closer to him.

Natsu set down the large bag he was carrying, which he'd taken of his back to allow Meredy to ride there. Opening it up, he pulled out some large blankets. He also dropped the creature he'd dragged with him, getting his first really good look at it. It was hard to say exactly what it was. It stood about 6 feet tall, he guessed, if it were standing up. The main part of its body was fairly round-shaped, with a long, lizard-like tail at the end. But the legs and feet were built like a large cat's, powerful with claws at the end. The snout was similar to a snake's head, with pristine white fangs showing toward the back of the mouth. The shape of the rest of the head reminded him somewhat of Igneel, as though it were some hybrid dragon-lizard, though overall a lot smaller. The body was, after all, no more than 20 feet in length, including the tail.

After heating two blankets and wrapping Meredy and Happy in them, Natsu went back toward the surface. Once outside the cave, he piled up as much snow as he could over the entrance, which proved to be a difficult task since the snow naturally melted at the touch of his hands. Finally he managed to get a good pile, and burrowed through the bottom. Once back inside, he melted the snow around the tunnel, which froze a layer into ice and prevented the tunnel from collapsing and effectively cutting off their airflow. He smirked in satisfaction, having effectively insulated the cave against the cold, and slowly used his magic to heat the inside a few degrees. He knew he couldn't make it too warm, or the snow would melt and their insulation layer would be gone. But he could do a little bit. Enough to help everyone keep warm.

Then he came down to where Happy and Meredy were already poking at the beast.

"It's too hard, we'll never be able to get the meat without Natsu." Happy said.

"But I'm hungry!" Meredy had a slightly whiny tone to her voice.

Natsu couldn't help chuckling. "Don't worry guys, I'm here." He smirked, finding a place to strike, and hit the beast on the flank, hard. He was glad that he hit it before, because he remembered what it took to break the rock-hard hide without totally obliterating what was underneath. He then began to chip away the skin at that side, exposing and then tearing out a few pounds of meat.

Slowly, carefully even, he roasted the meat, making sure that it was hot enough for them to eat. Then he tore a piece of for Happy and another piece for Meredy. They slowly started eating.

"Ewww…" Meredy stuck her tongue out. "It's weird."

Natsu shrugged. It wasn't steak or eggs, but it tasted better than a lot of the food he'd eaten under Igneel's care. "You'll get used to it," he promised. Happy didn't say much of anything. He just devoured his food next to the other two.

Soon the meat was eaten, and there was still quite a bit of the creature left. Natsu grinned. Thanks to the cold atmosphere, they didn't have to worry about the meat spoiling. But it had been a long day, and he was exhausted now. He lay back on the dirt floor of their little cavern, closing his eyes.

It wasn't long before he felt little hands against him, and then a small head snuggled into him. He looked down to see Meredy, still wrapped in her blanket, snuggled up against his side. Soon Happy came and joined her, only he took the other side. Both were wrapped in blankets, but Natsu was happy to be able to share his body heat with them as he knew their own probably wouldn't get them through the night.

So ended their first day in the northern wastes.

 **~~~~~~Fairy Tail~~~~~~**

"Whaddya mean flame-brain's gone?" Gray Fullbuster didn't take the news of Natsu's leaving well, but Makarov kind of expected that. However, what came next did surprise him.

"Now who's gonna' keep Erza and Mira off our asses?!" He yelled, his clothes already gone.

Makarov chuckled. "Oh, no need to worry about that. Erza, Ultear, and Mira all decided to leave for a while too."

That caught people's attention. "WHAT?!"

"Big sis didn't even tell us…" Elfman said.

"Mira-nee went with Natsu?" Lisanna was bug-eyed.

"Not with Natsu," Makarov corrected, realizing the guild just jumped to the wrong conclusions. "They all left separately. Natsu left really early in the morning, and the others left shortly after they got to the guild."

That got people to talking. Erza, Mirajane, and Natsu, the three youngest S-Class wizards, and Ultear, who in her short time there had already become a favorite to be the next S-Class due to her ability to keep up with Erza and Mira in fights. Now they were all gone.

"Well you know what that means," Gray said with a smirk. "More quests for me."

"You're not even allowed to take S-class quests Gray-san," Lisanna pointed out.

"I will be now. With Ultear gone, who's going to challenge me in the S-class trials in 4 months?"

"You think they'll be gone that long?" Lisanna said, looking like she might cry. Makarov shook his head sadly. The girl was most attached to her sister and Natsu of anyone in the guild. It would be tough for her to see them gone so long.

"Of course," Gray smirked. "If they just disappeared that way they'll probably be like Gildarts. Bet we won't see 'em for at least another 3 or 4 years."

"I doubt they'll be gone that long," Loke chimed in. "Natsu wouldn't even be able to stay away from the guild that long. And Ultear barely joined. They'll probably be back within a month."

Makarov thought it would be a little longer than a month. His personal guess was that Natsu wouldn't be able to keep away from the guild more than a couple years at most. But that was just his suspicion. No point sharing it with the rest of the guild.

Of course, Gray also wasn't going to be an S-class. Sure, he was a strong wizard for his age, but he wasn't ready for S-class yet. Actually, with Ultear gone, Makarov was kind of in a pickle. His plan had been for her to take the trials this year, but now his options were more limited.

Who else was there? Loke? He wouldn't be ready in a thousand years. Fried? Well, the rune mage was impressive, but was he really s-class material? Cana? Well, she could handle herself well enough, but again he wasn't sure she was ready. What about Bickslow? Makarov shuddered at the thought. Actually, scratch that. He didn't need anyone from the Raijinshuu becoming S-class while they practically worshiped Laxus.

Mystogan. Now there was a good possibility. The mysterious mage who Makarov learned came from another world. His magic would easily allow him to take the S-class trials. He just had to get him to agree.

With his plan firmly set, Makarov went back to work, ignoring the rest of the bustle around the guild.

 **~~~~~~Natsu, Meredy, and Happy~~~~~~**

After making sure he would be able to find his way back, Natsu headed off through the snow, Meredy and Happy trailing him. As with the previous day, he had to exert a good portion of his magic power just to keep Happy and Meredy warm enough to survive. It made sense now why gramps would recommend this place. At this rate it could be a few weeks before he was actually ready to do any serious training. It would take that long just to be able to function with his magic power constantly elevated as it was now.

The bitter wind nipped at him, and despite his extraordinary body heat he could feel a slight chill where it touched. He redoubled his efforts around Meredy and Happy, making sure to keep them separated from the cold by as much as possible.

"Natsu-nii, can we go back now?" Meredy asked, and Natsu sighed. They'd only been out for an hour and a half, and this was the 6th time she asked to go back.

"Not yet Meredy. Don't worry, we'll make sure to be back in time for lunch." He responded as gently as he could. After all, the girl was just 5. It was to be expected that she would tire quickly of the harsh environment here.

"Natsu-nii…"

"No, we can't go back yet," he said, a little more harshly than he intended to.

"I wasn't asking that." He turned to see her pouting at him, her eyes seemingly too wide for her face. Then she pointed behind him. "What's that?"

Natsu turned around and looked. In the distance, half buried in the snow, something looked a little off. Something rising out of the snow that was a little too pristine white.

"Wow, good eye Meredy," he praised, turning their path in the direction of the anomaly. As they got nearer, he realized that they were approaching a building. The closer they got, the deeper the snow became, till suddenly they broke through a wall of snow and came into full view of their goal.

What they saw was extremely surprising. Who would've thought any kind of building would exist less than a day's travel into these frozen wastelands? Yet they were clearly looking at a structure. Standing a little over 10 feet tall, the white building rose from the ground like an egg, even taking the familiar oval shape, except at the very bottom where the flat surface of the ground intersected the building. Snow was cleared in about a 5 foot radius around the entire building, piled up intentionally to obscure the top from sight. It was actually a small miracle that Meredy had seen it. At the bottom, near where they were, Natsu could see the lines of a door in the otherwise perfectly white wall. With a slow, steady step, he approached the door, knocking hard on its surface. Surprisingly, the surface was as hard as steel!

Slowly the door opened outward, and a man stepped from within. The man was like nothing that Natsu had ever seen before. His eyes had the experienced and knowing twinkle that Natsu so often saw in gramps. His snow-white beard reached fully to the buckle of his knee-length white pants. His snow-white sleeveless shirt barely covered his midriff, and he wore a white bandanna on the top of his head, from which locks of white hair fell below his shoulders in the back. His skin, however, was what drew the dragon-slayer's attention the most. His skin was red. Not the bright, vibrant red of the flames Natsu invoked for his magic, but a duller, almost brick-red. His eyes were also intense, the black of the pupils almost swallowed up in a brilliant orange.

The man looked over them briefly. Then, even as Natsu opened his mouth to tell him why they were there, he motioned for them to follow him into the building.

"Come," he said in a voice that was deep, yet melodic. "I have much to teach you."

Natsu's mouth snapped shut in bewilderment, but his curiosity was piqued, so he followed the old man into the building willingly, Meredy and Happy behind him.

The door closed once they were inside, and a white light surrounded them. There was no visible source of the light, unless it were, perhaps, the building itself. Yet it was the purest light they had ever seen. Purer, almost, than the sunlight that glanced off the pristine snow outside and exposed the frigid beauty of the frozen domain. Natsu found some relief from the biting wind of the frosted wasteland, and even noticed that he no longer felt cold. Testing the temperature, he slowly withdrew his flames from Meredy and Happy, smiling when neither of them seemed to notice.

"I am Yarandol, the father of ice and fire." The man's voice cut into his thoughts, causing him to turn back toward him. "It has been almost a thousand years since anyone has ventured this deep into these lands."

"I'm Natsu, a fire dragon slayer," Natsu said with a grin. "And this is Meredy, my little sister, and Happy."

"Not your sister by blood," the old man said looking at Meredy. He then turned back toward Natsu. "And I see that you have more than dragon slaying magic in you."

"What do you mean?" Natsu asked, a little confused.

"Your body contains very powerful fire magic," the man responded. "There are at least 3 kinds of fire magic now residing in you. Right now you can only use your dragon slaying magic, but with training you will be able to access the others."

"What are the others?" Natsu asked, grinning with anticipation. He couldn't wait to gain access to more powerful magic.

"The first one that I will help you master is God Slayer magic. Somewhere in your travels, you gained the power to kill gods."

"Oh yeah," Natsu blinked. "That's right, that one guy whose fire I ate claimed to be a god slayer or something." Then he looked back to the man. "What about the other one?"

The man drew in a deep breath. "The other magic is more difficult to explain, and certainly will be more difficult to master. I think you will not be ready for it until you have mastered your god slaying magic."

He then turned toward Meredy. "You, child, I can see that you currently have no training in magic. But you have much potential. If you agree, I will teach you my magic."

"You use ice magic?" She asked timidly, looking up at the old man.

"Hmm, not exactly," the man said. "It's hard to explain really, but I said I was the father of fire and ice, did I not? What do fire and ice have in common?"

"Nothing!" Meredy exclaimed proudly, as one might expect from a 5 year old. Natsu pondered the question, but couldn't find an answer to it.

The man chuckled. "Heat," he said, his eyes flaring bright orange as he spoke. "If you take heat away, ice is created. If you make something hot enough, fire is created. The magic I will teach you will make you a master of both ice and fire, if you are willing to learn it."

"Umm…" Meredy looked at Natsu hesitantly, and Natsu looked back at her, quirking an eyebrow.

"What's wrong Meredy?" he asked.

"Will I… Will I look like that if I learn the magic?" Meredy asked timidly, pointing at the old man.

That caused Yarandol to let out a boisterous laugh. "Of course not, child. This is just who I am. As I told you before, I am the father of ice and fire. This is my natural appearance." He then leaned down with a chuckle. "And if you learn my magic and learn it well, you will be able to walk even in this frozen land without feeling cold, and go to the depths of a volcano without feeling the heat."

"Wow, that's awesome!" Meredy cheered.

"Alright, let's get started." Yarandol said. "You both have a lot to learn."

* * *

So before anyone asks, no Meredy will not come back stronger than Erza, Mira, and Ultear. She'll be powerful - she was one of the 7 kin in canon, and honestly should have beaten Juvia despite being several years younger than her - but her age will be a major limiting factor in her magic power, as well as her inexperience.

Also, sorry, but my stories won't be giving characters the Mashima "love boost" effect (where they're down and practically about to die, but suddenly something happens to someone they "love" or they're encouraged by someone they "love" and their magic power suddenly doubles or triples. Right. Like that'll happen).

Anyway, that's all for A/N. Read and review!


	7. Chapter 7

****I don't own Fairy Tail or the characters. They belong to Mashima****

 **Alright, first things first.**

 **I saw a couple comments questioning why Makarov didn't send Gray and/or Ultear to the mountains. So I want to be clear about something...**

 **Makarov doesn't just send Natsu off to the mountains. Natsu made the decision to go train because he was determined to get stronger. Makarov knew that the mountains, if he could survive them, offered him the best opportunity to get stronger the fastest. He suggested them because he could see Natsu's determination. The mountains were no joke. Gray could've died there. Ultear could've died there. Natsu could've died there too.**

 **Furthermore, Makarov acts as a counselor, not a coach. He doesn't call the plays. Rather, he lets his 'children' make their decisions, and if he knows something that he thinks might help them on the path they choose he will tell them.**

 **Now I'm not going to spend a lot of time on what happens while Natsu is training. That would be kind of boring, honestly. There will be some detail, but not a lot. More will be revealed in future chapters in the form of flashbacks.**

 **Anyway, on to the story.**

* * *

 **~~~~~~Hargeon Port, x784~~~~~~**

"What do you think you're doing using my moniker?!" A pink-haired teen who looked to be 18 accosted a slightly taller man, his fists coated in fire as the heat around him melted the clothes off everyone within a mile.

At the same moment a now-naked blonde felt her eyes go from big red hearts back to normal. "He was using charm magic!" She realized suddenly. But before she could act on her realization…

"SURPRISE BUTTSEX BITCHES!"

…

…

…

…

…

 **~~~~~~J/K… In the mountains, with Natsu and Meredy, x780~~~~~~**

Meredy sat cross-legged on the cold metal floor, her hands folded in front of her. The lessons the old man offered were as tricky as he foreshadowed they might be, but she felt she was finally getting the hang of it. To her, the open door no longer let in _cold_. Rather, it let in an altered state of temperature, that could be taken and incorporated. Changed by her magic just like any other state of temperature. Concentrating on the air flowing in, she altered the temperature state without changing its course, allowing the new, warmer air to pass through to the room beyond.

"Much better," Yarandol spoke from within that room. "You are finally beginning to master the elementary steps of my magic. In a couple more weeks, you should be ready to begin the real training.

"A couple more weeks?!" Meredy whined, her concentration breaking immediately. That was like, forever! She was tired of just sitting there changing the temperature of the air! She wanted to do some real magic. Powerful stuff like Yarandol promised she could do if she trained under him.

Yarandol smiled at her. "I know it seems a long time, young one, but it is necessary that you gain complete mastery over the basics. Otherwise your progress will be much slower in the future, and your magic much less powerful and effective."

Meredy sighed. She didn't know about all this mastering the basics stuff. She just wanted to be strong like Natsu-san! But right now Yarandol was the only teacher she had, and it wasn't like they were going anywhere else in the near future. Especially with Natsu continuing to focus hard on his training. She sighed and closed her eyes again, attuning her body once again to the temperature around her. She was neither cold nor warm. Indeed, the words meant little to her. They were trivialities, but trivialities that were important for other things.

She focused her mind again, this time changing the temperature of the wind till it reached a level of 'cold' that she had not seen before. As the cold wind blew past her, she nearly felt the cold. Nearly. But after a month of training she was, as the old man promised, immune to all levels of temperature, whether hot or cold.

Again she let go of the wind, allowing it to return to its normal temperature as it brushed past and around her. Then, with another faint smile, she located the place where the wind was hitting the walls. She began to focus on increasing the temperature in just that spot, as much as she could. Reaching out with her magic, she excited the particles around the wall. As the air temperature registered what would be unbearably hot for most people, she began to expect the wall to react, glowing or melting like a metal. But to her frustration nothing seemed to happen. Her determined expression dropping to a scowl, she continued to superheat the air at the point where it contacted the material. Finally she could heat it no further, and still there was not even the faintest orange glow.

She frowned, feeling her magic power slipping away quickly from maintaining the extreme temperature adjustment. Soon she had to let go, her body sagging in exhaustion from the strain she'd put on her magic. What was that wall made of anyway? Was it some kind of super metal, or was she just that weak?

"It seems that's enough for this session," Yarandol said as he turned his attention away from her. "Let's see how Natsu's doing."

Meredy turned her attention back to the pink-haired dragon slayer. He was currently sitting with his legs crossed, his entire body wreathed in brick-red flames tinged with black. This was the color of the god slayer magic he absorbed while defending Meredy when her village was destroyed. She couldn't help but be awed as she saw the fire swirling around him. It made him look fierce, intimidating even, but the magic felt warm and comforting to her. Maybe that was because she knew he wouldn't hurt her.

"You are coming along well, Natsu." Yarandol said. "Now I have somebody who will continue your training for you."

What happened next caught Meredy's attention instantly. Yarandol drew a circle on the ground with his finger. Inside the circle he drew a six-pointed star, and in the area outside the star but within the circle he drew some runes that were foreign to her. When he was finished, he stepped back from the circle and commanded, "Hephaestus, come forth!"

For a moment nothing happened. Meredy held her breath, leaning in toward the circle to see what their current master might be summoning forth. Suddenly a column of fire, just contained by the edges of the circle, burst forth. Though she didn't feel heat, Meredy instinctively jerked back at the sudden eruption. The fire was not one color, but all colors. Crimson, orange, blue, black, even purple could be seen within the flames. Then, as abruptly as the fire came forth, it vanished.

Standing in the circle now was something that appeared to be a man, only with a broader chest and stout, almost dwarf-like features. Or at least they could have been dwarf like if he hadn't stood 10 feet in height. His bronzed skin, exposed down to his waist, glistened in the perpetual glow of flame that hung about him. His eyes burned like embers, and his entire torso rippled with muscle. He wore black leather pants, and in his right hand he held a giant stone hammer that looked as though it weighed a ton. Meredy stared at the newcomer in awe.

"What do you require of me, father?" Meredy gaped as the giant knelt before the old man in front of her.

"You are to train this young man as a god slayer," Yarandol replied. "More specifically, you are to train him as a true god slayer. You will not consider his training complete till he has mastered the 7 hidden flames."

Hephaestus cast his glowing eyes on Natsu. "But father, it is forbidden to teach the humans the hidden god slayer arts."

Yarandol scoffed. "Forbidden by whom? You know as well as I that my nephew has no right to forbid anything."

"He would say otherwise," Hephaestus replied. "But I will do as you command. You know I cannot teach him here."

"Of course," Yarandol replied. "Take him with you to the home of fire. When his training is complete, bring him back to southwestern border of our lands."

"Of course, father." With that the one known as Hephaestus grabbed Natsu by the wrist, and they both disappeared in front of Meredy's eyes.

"Who was that?" Meredy asked, wide-eyed, when they had gone. "And when will I see big brother Natsu again?!"

"That was my son Hephaestus. You humans know him as the god of fire and metallurgy. But that's not really important to you. What is important is that you have a lot of work to do if we're going to finish your training by the time Natsu is finished."

"So I won't see him again till he finishes his training?" Meredy asked, her lip sticking out a little.

"It's the only way. At least you'll have Happy to keep you company." The man motioned to the blue exceed, who was staring at the area where Natsu disappeared with a half-eaten fish in his mouth. "But then, you won't have time to worry about it much. Let's get back to work."

And so for the next several hours, Meredy returned to the boring routine of learning absolute control of temperature.

 **~~~~~~Far away, location unknown~~~~~~**

"Rargh!" Erza rolled to the side as an enormous claw descended on her, cutting a hole several feet deep in the rock where she'd just stood.

"Come on, is that all you've got?!" She yelled in frustration. "How can I ever hope to keep up with Natsu's training if I keep fighting weak creatures like you!"

She dodged another swipe, scowling at the huge beast in front of her. Sure, the creature was strong. But what difference did strength make if it couldn't even hit her? She could take a hundred of these at a time! All it would take would be a little bit of fast footwork and a couple well-timed strikes. There had to be a better way than this to ramp up her magic power over the next few months and impress Natsu.

"I've had enough of you!" She yelled, dodging another swipe and taking a quick shot to the creature's neck. Her sword went straight through its neck and she sliced upward toward the head, splitting it open all the way as she went. She jumped clear of the area then, not wanting to get caught in the creature's death throes.

For the next few seconds the ground shook under her as the lifeless body thrashed about, the nerves gasping out their last futile efforts to stop the blow that they didn't realize already killed the beast. Then the thrashing stopped, and with a heavy thud it hit the ground.

Then Erza walked up to it and, with a few quick strokes of her sword, removed 3 of the spines that were required to verify the creature's demise. Then she headed back and claimed her 3 million jewel reward.

After the town party that ensued, Erza took out one of the novels that she'd just recently discovered and started reading. Her imagination replaced the lead male in the novel with the pink-haired dragon slayer she'd come to admire as she sank back onto her bed, requipping her skirt and underwear off.

"How could I resist a beautiful woman like you?" Natsu was saying, and Erza blushed faintly at this acknowledgement of her beauty. "You, my maiden of steel, yet a delicate flower before me."

She welcomed the advances that came with this speech, shivers going down her spine as a caressing hand moved ever closer to her thighs. "I know you like it," he breathed in her ear, and she didn't deny what she knew to be true also. Instead she spread her legs slightly, asking him to press closer to her core.

But he declined her that pleasure, perhaps knowing that her body wasn't fully prepared. Instead, his stray hand crept slowly up her shirt, brushing gently against the smooth white skin of her belly and pulling her garment up along the way. Annoyed by the obstruction, Erza quickly requipped it off, along with her bra, leaving herself naked on the bed.

"Natsu," she whimpered as the hand caressed and squeezed her breast. Then he rubbed her nipple gently before also squeezing that, though it was a bit rough. This only served to turn her on more, and she felt a light, breathy moan escape as she lay back further on the bed.

But still his hand didn't travel back down. Instead, it made its way to her other breast. Slowly, by degrees. It brushed gently across her smooth skin before taking the firm, springy breast and squeezing it roughly. She suppressed another moan as he gave her nipple similar treatment, her legs spread and ready for him.

Now his hand traveled ever so slowly down her torso, teasing at her aching core. She arched into his touch, wanting, no, needing him to go just a bit further. A strangled gasp escaped her lips as the hand encountered her puffy lips, and she desperately began to gyrate against the fingers that massaged her, carefully rubbing the spots that were most sensitive.

"Natsu," she moaned softly, closing her eyes as the fingers did their work. Oh that this moment could go on forever, but already she could feel a knot beginning to form inside of her. All too soon it would be over. Her body would release, and the moment would be gone forever.

She moaned again, her hips gyrating now as two fingers began dipping into her womanhood, massaging and pushing in and out quickly. She felt her breathing come more quickly as her moment approached, the knot in her stomach tightening and begging to be released.

The fingers moved frantically to grant her that release, and in a few moments their efforts were rewarded. With a loud moan Erza came, her juices spilling out onto her fingers and the bed of the hotel in which she was staying. With the release, the image of Natsu she carried in her mind broke as well, and the fantasy was over. She lay alone on her bed, naked, her fingers dripping with her love juices.

"One day Natsu," she breathed softly as her body recovered from the orgasm she just experienced. "One day you really will be here…"

With that promise she requipped into a nightgown before pulling out a Natsu plush. It would've been a shame for him to see that, after all. She kissed the plush gently on the forehead as she leaned pulled the covers over them, her heart rate slowing as she rested.

How she got the plush. Well, that was a story. She had persuaded the best toymaker in Fiore to make the most realistic soft replica of the dragon slayer that he could. And he'd done a fine job. The plush was even close to Natsu's real size and shape. It was so nice of him to make it for her for so little too!

Of course, from the way he told the tale it sounded as though she practically demanded it at sword point. That was a huge stretch! She didn't even have a sword out when she firmly requested the plush be made for the price. And it's not like she could've afforded to pay more anyway.

But all that didn't matter now. All that was important was that she had her Natsu plushy to snuggle up against. She nestled in, her head laying gently on the soft, half-bare chest.

Moments later, Erza Scarlet was dead to the world.

 **~~~~~~Another unknown location~~~~~~**

"Are you stupid or something, girl?" A dark haired man holding a rapier sneered at Mirajane. 5 other wizards gathered around him, some holding various weapons while others appeared to have a different kind of magic. "You can't hope to beat all of us."

Mira just smirked at them. She hadn't even let them see her Satan Soul yet. They hadn't yet proved themselves worthy. This was supposed to be a request worthy of S class ranking, but so far the whole band was full of weaklings.

"The real question," she said before launching her first attack at the leader, "is whether the 6 of you can hope to beat me."

She watched the attack – a simple kick, connect with a blocking arm. But then she amplified the force at the point of impact. The man staggered back a couple steps, surprised.

"You're gonna' have to do better than a little body enhancement," he smirked. "But maybe after we break you that body enhancement will come in handy."

Mira thought about ignoring the innuendo, but it was just impossible. She smirked slightly as she changed her stance to a ready position. "From the looks of it, you need all the 'enhancement' you can get."

A couple of the others laughed, but the leader's smirk quickly disappeared. "You'll pay for making fun of me bitch!" He said, coming at her quickly with his sword.

Although the thrust appeared to be only a normal speed, Mirajane felt it slip through her side as she dodged. She blinked, confused. Had he really moved so fast that the blade impacted before she could even see it?

Instinctively she dodged again, this time tucking into a roll to her left. The sword scraped her again as it descended, and she looked up to see the man, still moving so quickly it looked as though he were split into multiples.

"You got lucky that time girl, but don't think it'll happen again." He said.

"Well fuck," said Mirajane. She'd hoped to wait a little longer before using her Satan Soul, but it looked like this guy would require it. The take over was just in time. Barely had it completed before she caught the blade that would've sliced her neck in a millisecond in her clawed fingers.

"Congratulations," she said as the guy stepped back. "You're the first one in your band of thugs that made me get serious. Now don't be a disappointment."

Out of the corner of her eye she caught a couple members of the group moving toward her. "Evil Explosion," she cried out as she sent explosions at the two. She then wondered if she put more power than she needed into the attacks, as they were both instantly knocked out.

"What are you?" The confident smirk was gone from her opponent's face now as he faced her, his sword still at the ready. Mirajane turned her attention fully back toward her as her own grin widened, falling into a crouch as she prepared to attack.

"I'm the demon of Fairy Tail," she replied as she launched herself forward. The sword came up to block her, but in this form the speed didn't mean much. She swept it aside easily with one hand.

"You're weak," she said, disappointed, as her hand connected with his gut, knocking him back into the far wall hard. Apparently he'd spent all his time training his speed and agility, leaving an easy opening to any powerful opponent who could match him in sheer physical speed.

He started to rise, his sword at the ready again, but before he could she kicked him in the chest hard, slamming his body back against the wall. She saw his form deflate as he slumped to the floor.

"Weak…" She scoffed, her brow furrowing in disappointment, letting go of her Satan soul. "YOU'RE ALL FUCKING WEAK!"

"Well, you're quite the troublesome one, aren't you?"

Mira turned toward the new voice, her eyes finding its source immediately. She was looking at a man who was well above average height. 6'6", maybe even 6'7" if she had to guess. His hair was short and spiky, with slightly longer spikes sticking out toward the bottom and back.

He wore a sword on his hip as well, but he wasn't touching it yet. Instead, he seemed to be scanning her for weaknesses. Her lips tilted upward again. Maybe this one would be worth her time.

"It seems most of our little band has underestimated you," he said after a pause. "Be assured I will not make the same mistake. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Baliel, and I'll be the one to defeat you."

"We'll see about that," Mirajane said, her lips still drawn into a confident smirk. She quickly moved into Satan Soul and attacked.

She didn't see him draw his blade, but there it was to intercept her clawed hand. Her next attack was similarly blocked. Then she jumped back just in time to avoid a thrust that easily penetrated her defenses.

"You're better than you look," she admitted, keeping her distance for the moment. A head on attack wouldn't beat someone as fast as he was. She had to look for other openings.

"You don't know the half of it," Baliel responded, and suddenly he was right in front of her. She just managed to get an arm up in time to deflect the sword, but cried out in pain as the blade bit deep into her body, coming almost to the bone. She felt her body tumble backward, but used the momentum to quickly get to her feet.

But she wasn't fast enough. No sooner was she up than she had to dive again, the sword barely missing her head as it passed over her at impossible speed. "Evil explosion!" This time before getting up, she launched an attack at him, forcing him to block with his blade. But he emerged unscathed even as she regained her feet. She leapt back, but still the sword came into contact with her side.

"What is it with you guys and swords?" She muttered. Then she took a deep breath. "Satan Soul: Sitri."

Immediately new power poured into her body, and she moved just in time to avoid being cut in two at the waist. He came forward again, but this time she could see his movements, and stayed ahead of them. She dodged to the side of his strike, something he obviously wasn't expecting, and took advantage of the off-balance moment that followed to kick out into his knee. She grinned in satisfaction as she heard a crack, and he stumbled hard.

She pressed the advantage, coming in for a hard punch to his head, but to her surprise he pivoted on his bad knee and brought his sword up to block. She switched her attack at the last moment, sliding under the sword and settling for a firm strike to the chest that sent him flying backward.

Yet she couldn't help noticing that when he got up, both his legs seemed fine. That was impossible, wasn't it? It had to be! She'd heard the crack when she connected with his knee! She felt the bone break under her strike! There's no way he could even walk on that, let alone jump to his feet and dash forward!

"I commend you girl," he said, his voice a deep growl. "Nobody has forced me to shed my human form for many years. You should be honored that I choose this form to destroy you."

With that he discarded the sword, and his body began changing. No longer did he look like a human. His legs became longer and taller, ripping out of most of his pants except the loincloth that still covered his genitals. His skin hardened like blackened leather, and indeed became mostly black from the bottom of his feet to the top of his now hairless head. The black was streaked with dark red, with almost tattoo-like marks across his chest and arms. His eyes burned a bright orange, and horns sprouted in all directions from his head. He had no nose to speak of – only two holes on the flat surface of his face, adding to the grotesque appearance. His fingers extended, the nails at the end lengthening and sharpening into claws. Scales grew on his upper body, covering him in what looked like a kind of armor.

"Behold Baliel, 2nd demon lord of the abyss!" He shouted triumphantly, his voice deep and loud enough to make her cover her ears from the pain.

"Demon eh?" She said, unfazed as he prepared to attack. "Well in that case…" She waited till he was almost upon her before whispering, "take over."

The effect was instant. Her magic did its work, and the demon in front of her was absorbed into her body. She felt her clothing start to tear as her body assumed the new form. Then she felt her will kick in as her new acquisition struggled for control. But she wouldn't let him hold on. She'd captured demon 'lords' before. This one was just a bit more powerful. She could handle him.

She grunted, straining against the efforts. Ok, maybe she should've worn him down a bit more first. This might be more of a struggle than she anticipated. But still, there was no way she was losing to a freaking demon. No way in hell!

Taking a deep breath, she focused on regaining control of her body. She resisted the urge to start a rampage. To destroy everything in her path. It seemed to take forever, but finally the resistance ended. Her body returned to her normal form, and she slumped to her knees.

It was only then that she realized something strange. The man she had first encountered was lying on the ground in front of her, completely still. When she leaned down to check his pulse, his wrists were cold, and she couldn't hear any breath coming from his mouth. She put her hands to her own mouth as the realization struck her. This man was a take over mage! A take over mage who had been unable to control the demon soul he acquired!

Sadness washed over her as she wondered what his life had been prior to this. Whatever good he may have accomplished before encountering this demon, his memory would now be forever tainted by what the creature did in his name. Perhaps he had gone out to defeat the demon in response to a request just like hers, and the demon had been too much for him. It seized the opportunity and took a human host.

The next few moments found Mirajane digging a grave in the enclosure nearby. It was the least she could do for the memory of what this man had been before. She would turn the rest over to the council, but the unnamed take over mage would rest here in peace.

Then she would get some practice with her new soul. The amount of magic power it would take was sure to help her grow faster than ever.

* * *

 **Sorry about the fake beginning, but I saw a reviewer's comment about the cliche Natsu leaves and comes back at the start of canon plot and couldn't help it. So anyway, drop a review if you liked it. Till next time...**


	8. Chapter 8

****I don't own Fairy Tail or the Characters****

 **Before I start this chapter, there are a few things to cover…**

 **First, this won't be a super harem. I've seen a lot of requests to add more to the harem. I'll consider one or two more, but the harem won't expand beyond 7 at the most.**

 **Many of the requests talk about adding Meredy to the harem. It might be harder to do since she kind of looks up to Natsu as her big brother right now… but that could change over time. Basically I haven't decided one way or the other on her yet.**

 **Lucy won't be in the harem. That should go without saying… Irene also won't be in it, because it just doesn't work with this storyline for one thing.**

 **Considering the 3 main girls who are already in, any further girls would have to have extremely close connections to Natsu and the other 3. Meredy would be a possible exception since Natsu found her and is already very close with her, though to them it's a brother/sister thing right now. I also won't be sacrificing plot to bring new girls into the harem, so that rules out anyone that Natsu and the others won't have any significant reason to interact with.**

 **One notable possibility that I have considered is Edo-Erza, just because it wouldn't be that hard to do and it would bring all kinds of possibilities to the story. However, Lisanna is out (sorry Lisanna fans) basically because in this story Natsu never forms as deep of a connection with her.**

 **Also, I want to be clear that the demon Mirajane fought took over the body he was using. The person wasn't actually alive anymore. The demon was using his body so that he could act inconspicuously as a human. So Mirajane didn't** ** _kill_** **him. She took over the demon, which forced the demon out of the body it was inhabiting.**

 **Anyway, on to the story.**

 **-X782-**

* * *

"Yo Elf freak…"

Lisanna looked up as she heard the annoying voice of Laxus, the cockiest jerk in the guild, calling his personal moniker for her brother.

"Leave him alone, Laxus," she said, glaring at the thunder mage.

"Or what?" Laxus returned her glare. "Women should know their place and keep their mouths shut around here."

As Lisanna opened her mouth to retort, Laxus turned back to Elfman and cut her off. "You're comin' on this request with me."

Anything Lisanna was going to say instantly flew out the window. Laxus was requesting her brother for a job request?

"Why would I want to go anywhere with you?" Was Elfman's predictable response.

"Because it's an S class quest, and you want to be promoted to S class to join your sister." Laxus smirked. "This is your chance to prove you can handle it."

Lisanna frowned. She felt Laxus was trying to manipulate her brother, but she couldn't figure out why. Ever since Natsu and the 3 strongest females in the guild left for training, Elfman had become the lightning mage's favorite target to pick on.

"What could you possibly need me there for?" Elfman asked, starting to waver.

"I don't _need_ you," Laxus replied, still smirking. "I'm offering you an opportunity. The beast that we're supposed to take down is pretty powerful. If you take over it, it'll give you a massive power boost and I'll barely have to do any work."

"Taking over new beast souls is manly!" Elfman declared.

"Hold on," Lisanna interjected as her brother rose. "I'm coming with in that case."

"You should stay here where it's safe," Elfman replied, frowning at her.

"I'll definitely be safe. If the beast gets near me, you can just take over it." Lisanna said with a sweet smile. Normally she wouldn't feel the need to come, but something wasn't right here. This was Laxus they were talking about after all, and he always meant trouble. "I know you'll protect me."

"That's right!" Elfman said with a grin. "Protecting your sister is a man!"

Laxus shrugged. "Sure, if you want to come you can entertain me at night I suppose. You're not as cute as your sister, but you're probably a hell of a lot tighter."

Lisanna's cheeks flushed crimson as she glared at the lightning mage. "Like you would know." She knew for a fact Mirajane had never slept with the jerk because there was only one person Mira would do that with. And he still hadn't returned to the guild. For that matter, neither had Mirajane.

The smirk didn't disappear from his face. "I will though. Just wait. When that pink-haired faggot gets back here I'm gonna' kick his ass and prove who's the strongest. Then your goth-freak sister will be all over my dick."

"Mira's not like that," Lisanna retorted, growing angrier by the moment. "And neither is Natsu. He won't be so easy to beat!"

"Tch." Laxus scoffed. "I don't have time to argue with you. Weak bitches like you should only consider doing one thing with your mouth, and that's wrapping it around my dick."

"You take that back!" Elfman roared. "It's not manly to talk to someone's sister like that!"

"Yeah whatever Elf-freak. Can we leave now, or do I have to kick your ass first?"

Lisanna could tell Elfman was about to retort again, so she held up a placating hand to get him to stop. She didn't like what Laxus was saying any more than he did, but she also didn't want to see him get beat down. They would just have to hope the lightning mage felt less talkative for the journey.

As it turned out, the first part of the journey was a three hour train ride that took them to the nearest city to the job request. From there they walked the rest of the way, each carrying their own tents and sleeping equipment. Of course, there was also enough food for everyone, but Elfman had insisted on carrying both his and Lisanna's shares of food. Overall, her pack was pretty light. Thankfully, there was little conversation the entire way. Laxus kept his earphones on, so she guessed he probably wouldn't hear anything even if they were talking.

Finally the first day was over and they all had their tents set up. Laxus was quick to disappear into his tent with his bag, which seemed pretty heavily loaded for just one person. Lisanna and Elfman talked for a while outside their tents after they ate. Then finally Lisanna went to her tent and unrolled her sleeping bag. It was far too warm to sleep inside it though, so instead she just lay down on top.

She was just about to go to sleep when her tent zipper zipped up, and she looked up just in time to see Laxus coming into the tent. She sat up instantly, trying to block the entrance, but he was already inside. She opened her mouth to call out for Elfman, but again he was too fast, a hand whipping out to cover her mouth. As his face pressed close to hers.

"Time to make your contribution to this job request," he hissed, and she recoiled. His breath reeked of alcohol, and she could hear a noticeable slur in his speech. Unable to talk or respond, she shook her head violently, but he kept his hand planted firmly over her mouth.

"I don't hear ya' saying no," the older teen said as she grabbed his hand, trying to pry it away from her mouth.

Lisanna struggled harder, yanking her whole body away. She just needed to free up her mouth so she could enter one of her take over souls. He grabbed her firmly with the other arm though, holding her tight against him. He ignored her kicks and wild backward punches and pulled his arm up to clinch it around her neck. That was the last thing she remembered before her consciousness faded.

When she woke up, not too much longer if she had to guess, she was naked in her tent. She instantly moved to stand up, but she found her arms and legs were tied. Furthermore, her mouth was stuffed full of some sort of cloth that was tied tightly around the back of her head. She tried to speak, but all that would come out were a few muffled grunts.

"Ya know," the voice next to her caused her to freeze as fear and revulsion filled her. "I've had a few minutes to think about this, so I'm gonna' make you a deal. You give me your word now that you don't tell the old fool or anyone else in the guild about this, and I'll stop short of poppin' your cherry. In other words, I won't actually touch you at all. You refuse to keep it to yourself and I'm gonna' cum in your pussy so many times you can be sure you'll be havin' my baby." He leaned over her, and she could still smell the alcohol on his breath. "Just nod your head if you accept, and shake your head no if you want me to start pounding that tight-ass pussy."

He then added, "And just so you know, this is a pact field. You say yes, you're bound to keep silent about it till the day you die. So there's no lyin'."

Lisanna slowly nodded her head, tears coming to her eyes. As much as she wanted to see what would happen when Mira-nee and Natsu found out about this, it wasn't worth what he would do if she said no.

Then she shut her eyes, letting the tears flow as he began.

 **~~~~~~The next morning~~~~~~**

"Hey sis, you done bathing yet?!"

"Almost!" Lisanna called out as she scrubbed her body furiously again. She soaped up her breasts, her butt, her flat belly, and her crotch yet again, scrubbing hard to try to remove the dirty feeling from the loads of cum that were dumped on her body. No matter how many times she scrubbed, it was as though she could still feel it. The dried, crusty reminder of her horrific experience the previous night.

She inwardly cursed herself for not recognizing earlier that the lightning mage really planned to use her body that way at the outset. She'd racked it up to another bad joke/threat that would never be followed through on. But of course there had been alcohol involved. There was a good chance the threat never would've become a reality without the influence of alcohol.

She again moved to her face, scrubbing everywhere, around her face. She supposed that was one good thing about the gag the previous night. Even though it prevented her from calling out to her brother, it also prevented any of that jerk's disgusting semen from getting inside of her mouth. Still, she brushed her teeth 5 times that morning.

When she was finally finished and they were on her way, she found herself wondering why her? What had she done to deserve something like this? Had she been flirting with the lightning mage without realizing it? Did she wear clothing that was too revealing? Was that really just all she was good for in general?

 **[A/N – Just so we're clear, I don't believe rape of any kind is acceptable at any time. Nor do I believe that you can blame the girl. However, there is often an unfortunate psychological tendency for girls who are victims of sexual assault to blame themselves for what occurred. That is what we are seeing here, and it will change Lisanna's character substantially as time moves on.]**

"Hey sis, you ok? You seem awfully quiet today."

She looked up to see Elfman looking back at her, concern evident in his eyes. She summoned up a smile from somewhere, moving her eyes away from his before replying. "Yeah, I'm fine. Just concerned about the quest is all."

"You don't need to worry about that sis. I'm gonna' take over the beast like a man!"

Had circumstances been different, Lisanna might have giggled at the brave declaration. But now she couldn't even find a real smile for the occasion. Her fake smile remained plastered on her face as she replied, trying to put some exuberance into her own voice. "I'm sure you will Elfman-nii-san. I'm probably worried for nothing."

The rest of the hike out to the village that was plagued by the beast was mercifully silent. Laxus seemed bent on pretending she didn't even exist. Elfman tried a few more times to make conversation, but eventually gave up and just kept muttering about 'manly' things along the way. By the time they reached the village, the atmosphere was so tense that even the townspeople avoided the group.

After talking to the mayor, they headed out to find the beast. It was actually a lot easier than they'd expected, as the creature made no attempt to remain hidden.

"Alright Elf-freak. Let's see your take-over," Laxus said boredly, pointing toward the monster.

Elfman, in sharp contrast to Laxus' bored tone, sounded excited as he stepped forward. "This takeover will be a real man!"

At first it looked as though everything went as planned. The beast disappeared, and Elfman transformed into the large creature. **[A/N not going to bother describing it. Looks the same as canon]** But it quickly became evident that something was wrong. Elfman, still in the form of the beast, turned back and took a swing at Laxus, who jumped back away from the blow before it took a huge chunk out of the ground. Lisanna found herself having to jump out of the way as another large swipe threatened to demolish her.

"I was afraid this might happen," Laxus said with a sigh as he infused his fist with lightning. He struck a blow to the beast, which bellowed and struck back at him. Laxus didn't dodge the return blow fast enough, and was sent flying into a rock wall a hundred yards away.

"Son of a bitch." He charged back in. "This was supposed to be an easy job. Way to be weak, Elf-freak." He charged up a powerful lightning attack, slamming Elfman, still trapped in beast form, with it. The beast reeled back, but recovered quickly, taking another swipe at Laxus, who barely dodged in time.

"Dammit, it's getting faster." Laxus said as he charged forward again, striking a blow directly to the head. Again the beast stopped, shook its head for a moment, and seemed to recover instantly.

"Well this is going nowhere… RAGING BOLT!" Laxus cried out.

Lisanna's eyes widened at the sudden escalation of power. That attack could kill Elfman! But she didn't have time to intervene. She could only watch as the massive lightning attack struck the beast, sending it to the ground. She quickly ran over to check on the creature, but stopped dead as it slowly got to its knees.

"Guess I didn't hit you hard enough. How about another one?" Laxus smirked, starting to power up another raging bolt attack.

"NO!" Lisanna shouted. "You could kill him!"

Laxus shrugged. "And? If he can't control his take over he'll just end up dead anyway."

Lisanna moved to stand in front of the beast, dropping her pack to give her more agility on the battlefield. "If you knock him out he'll be able to control the beast form!"

"I don't need to explain myself to you, bitch." He replied. "If you don't move I can't be responsible for what happens to you. Not like anyone would miss a cum dumpster like you anyway."

Lisanna felt hot tears in her eyes as she was unable to formulate a response. He was wrong! Natsu and Mira-nee would definitely miss her. Wouldn't they? Or did they secretly hate her and wish she were dead? Maybe the only reason Natsu talked to her was because she was Mira's sister. After all, the two were obviously close. And she was sure that if given the chance, Mira wouldn't hesitate to bed the dragon slayer. Perhaps she was just misinterpreting his kindness because of her need to feel important and loved. Maybe she was nothing to him either.

A bright light brought her back to reality, and she realized the attack was approaching fast. She couldn't get out of the way in time, even if she wanted to. Perhaps it was better this way anyway. Maybe the whole guild would be better off. They might miss Elfman, but there were plenty of others as strong as he was…

Suddenly, at the last second, she felt a pair clawed hands grab her and move her out of the blast area in the blink of an eye. She looked up to see Mira's unmistakable face, though it was wrapped in a take-over form she'd never seen before. Her sister glared at the lightning mage, standing next to Lisanna as she slipped quietly to the ground.

"Care to explain what's going on here Laxus?" Her voice sounded deep, her eyes hard. Fire and lightning mixed around her figure, dancing around her curves that seemed somehow more accentuated, though her female parts were scantily covered in this take over.

"This fool is trying to get in the way of the job request," Laxus replied irritably. "I warned her to move, and she refused."

"I know you have other spells you could've used," Mira responded, her voice as gravelly as a female voice could get. "You could've killed her with that."

Laxus motioned to the Elfman, still in beast form. "It had to be strong enough to knock that out."

Mira scoffed. "I can knock that out in 10 seconds," she declared. "I thought you were supposed to be strong, Laxus."

"Mira-nee… That's Elfman," Lisanna said weakly, recovered enough to talk now.

"Elfman?!" Mira tensed, looking from the creature to Laxus. "You could've killed my brother too?" Fury raged in her voice, her eyes turning a glowing a bright orange. "I should kill you right here for this!"

The beast chose that minute to roar and attack Mirajane. However, she just turned to it, moving faster than Lisanna's eye could follow. The next instant, the creature fell to the ground again. This time its eyes closed, and the large beast slowly faded to Elfman. The slow rise and fall of his chest told Lisanna that her brother was ok.

"Now to take care of you," Mirajane growled, turning to Laxus. "A monster who would kill his own nakama doesn't deserve to live! Dual Demonic Elemental Art: Hell on Earth!"

Lisanna watched, gaping as the entire area around Laxus suddenly changed. No longer the grassy mountain she was standing on, the area inside the giant circle was a black, rocky terrain sparking with terrifying energy. The ground below the lightning mage began bubbling, like a pool of lava about to erupt, as the air crackled with power inside. She watched as he tried to use his lightning body to escape, but failed. Again, he tried to punch a hole in the barrier. Again he was unsuccessful. Slowly terror replaced the confident smirk in his eyes as the ground below him opened up, and the whole area was consumed in a raging fire that was almost brick red.

Lisanna was horrified. Her sister had just killed someone in cold blood! She turned to Mirajane, who merely stamped her foot in anger, glaring in the direction of the fire.

"Dammit!" She yelled. "Why did you do that?"

"Because I couldn't let one of my favorite girls become a killer." Lisanna gasped as she heard Natsu's voice from the other side. "I don't think you have as much control as you think you do over that take over, Mira."

"He tried to kill Lisanna and Elfman!" Mira raged as the fire died away, giving Lisanna a view of what lay beyond it. Natsu was standing there, an unconscious but barely injured Laxus on the ground next to him. Beyond Natsu, she saw Happy and Meredy, who had grown quite a bit since Lisanna last saw her.

Natsu's jaw hardened, but he didn't back down. "Even if he did, that doesn't mean you have to kill him. I'm sure you could've stopped him with a less powerful attack."

Mira's eyes widened a little as she heard basically what she just told Laxus repeated back to her. The orange glow in her eyes flickered, perhaps an indication that her will was wavering.

Suddenly Natsu was right next to her, and Lisanna watched as he put an arm around her waist. "Now how about you let go of this take over so I can greet you properly. Not that you're not damn sexy like this," Natsu added with a slight smirk.

"Eh?" The orange glow was replaced by Mira's baby-blue eyes quickly, but the transformation didn't disappear. "If you find this sexy, why would I change?"

"Because I find your human form even more sexy…" Natsu said, pausing for a minute before adding, "Please tell me your taste in clothing hasn't changed while I've been away."

The new take-over quickly faded, revealing Mirajane in a pair of extremely short black shorts and a tight black belly shirt that ended well above her belly button but also showed plenty of cleavage. Her hair was pulled back into her trademark ponytail, a large black bow holding it in place. "Hasn't changed much." She smirked.

"Oh, and…" Without warning she suddenly delivered a powerful punch that sent Natsu flying almost 30 feet back. "That's for leaving me for almost 2 years!" She yelled.

"Sorry," Natsu said, getting to his feet slowly. He was barely up before Mira was on him, her arms snaked tightly around his back as she pressed her body against his.

"I can think of several ways you can make it up to me later," she replied in a tone that made Lisanna blush and look away.

"Hmm… You'll have to tell me in more detail later," she heard Natsu reply. From his tone she could imagine the smirk on his face.

"Oh, I'll do much more than tell you," Mirajane said, and Lisanna shivered slightly at the suggestiveness of her tone. Her mind returned to the previous night, and again she felt dirty all over.

To busy herself, she went to check on Elfman, who was still out cold. However, his chest was rising and falling normally, and other than being knocked out he didn't seem to have any damage that was too severe. Lisanna was happy about that at least.

 **~~~~~~That night~~~~~~**

"Natsu, get over here and help me get this tent set up."

"Why should I help you? You're perfectly capable of getting your tent up," Natsu replied, a slight smirk on his face. He didn't mind helping the white-haired beauty, but if it was a simple thing like a tent…

"You help me with my tent, and I'll help you pitch your tent." Mira replied.

"I sleep outdoors all the time, so I don't have a tent," Natsu responded on auto-pilot before his conscious mind realized what she just said. Happy and Meredy were used to sleeping without tents as well now. Meredy was unaffected by cold and heat alike, and Natsu had to admit she grew a lot from the little girl he picked up in the burning village. She might even be stronger than Gray now! He couldn't help being proud of her, even though he'd done absolutely nothing to train her. The old guy they'd met in the frozen wilderness was sure that with enough time and practice Meredy would become one of the strongest wizards in Earthland with the magic he taught her.

He didn't get a response, but he headed over to help anyway. It only took a few minutes to set up her tent. Laxus, who woke up on their hike back, had just finished putting up his own tent. Lisanna had taken out Elfman's tent and put that up. Natsu noticed that she didn't have a pack, and when he asked her about it she'd replied, without looking him in the eyes, that her pack was destroyed in the battle with the beast.

There seemed to be something more to Lisanna's behavior, though. She'd been abnormally quiet, and she had those telltale signs of trying to lie to him or be evasive several times. He also noticed that she seemed to stay as far from Laxus as she reasonably good. The lightning mage must have something to do with it, but what?

He was pulled from further speculation when Mira grabbed him from behind and pulled him through her open tent flap. He turned toward her as she reached around him to zip the flap down, a lustful smirk on her beautiful lips.

 **~~~~~~~Lemon Begin~~~~~~~**

"I think it's time for you to make it up to me," she said, pushing him all the way to his back and straddling his waist. As he was still a virgin, just the feeling of Mira's firm butt pressing against his dick, combined with the kiss she just leaned down to give him, was enough to make him instantly hard.

"I have no idea what I'm doing," he said hesitantly after Mira released his lips. Despite his supreme confidence when it came to magic, he had 0 confidence when it came to girls. They were still new and foreign to him, and he was afraid that if he failed to please Mira she might not like him anymore.

"Don't worry, I'm sure you'll catch on fast." Mira replied with a smirk, standing up just long enough to pull her shorts and a black thong off. Natsu felt himself get a slight nosebleed as he got his first good look at the beauty's female parts. She then straddled him again, pulling her shirt off and unclipping her bra, which fell away to reveal her large, firm breasts.

Natsu felt like he could almost cum just from feeling her female parts grind against his dick and her naked chest pressed against his own exposed pecs. Sure, he'd learned his way around his own body before, but this was his first time with a living, breathing woman naked on top of him. And one as hot as Mirajane at that!

"Natsu…" He shivered at the lustful, yet demonic hiss. "I'm feeling a distinct lack of action from you right now." It was a demand, and he knew it.

He quickly complied with the demand, doing, as she said earlier, what felt natural to him. First he slipped his arms around her waist, pulling her into another deep kiss. He also allowed his vest to fall further open, so her bountiful breasts pressed against his skin. Breaking the kiss, he then began to kiss a trail down her smooth neck.

She arched into the kisses, her eyes lidded with lust as he moved further, stopping at the base of her neck. He stayed there, gathering some skin in his mouth and sucking hard on it for a moment before letting it go. Meanwhile, his hands roved down her back, finding her firm, round butt and giving both cheeks a simultaneous squeeze. He was rewarded with a light moan, but as he continued to focus on her neck, she issued another command.

"You're moving too slow. I'm gonna' take control in a minute if you don't pick up your game." She hissed in his ear, and he felt her legs clamp around him as evidence she still had enough control to follow through.

With a soft nod, he kissed his way slowly down her creamy breast, finally reaching her nipple. He took one nipple in his mouth gently, tracing his tongue around it before taking it gently between his teeth. Mirajane gasped and moaned as he bit down just a little bit. Encouraged, he moved one of his hands from massaging her rump to take her other breast, massaging it and squeezing the nipple slowly.

Mira arched her body against him, another soft gasp escaping her. He smiled at the reaction, continuing to suck on and bite her nipples in turn. She moaned again, and his sensitive nose picked up a new aroma coming from her nether regions. He'd never experienced it before, but it drove him even more wild. He wanted to flip her on top of him so he could get a taste of it, but he didn't know how she would feel about it and didn't want to risk her wrath. So instead, he continued to kiss the soft creamy skin of her breast and nipples, pleasuring them alternately with his mouth and hand.

After several minutes of this, Mira brought her head down to his ear and hissed out, "Alright, you've had your chance… I'm taking over from here.

Before he could object, her boobs were pulled away from his face, their warm, pillowy comfort gone from the sensuous caress he was giving them. But they were quickly replaced by the strong, slightly musky scent as her womanhood was shoved into his face. She wiggled it, expectantly.

Not knowing what else to do, Natsu slowly stuck his tongue out, tasting her juices. She shivered, arching above him, and he pushed his tongue out again. It didn't take him long to figure out that she was most pleasured when he was actually moving his tongue. He began to move more, pushing it slowly into her womanhood, and smiled when she gave off another moan, louder than before.

Slowly he reached up, grabbing her hips and adjusting her above him to give him better access. He heard her moan again as he slipped his tongue out, pushing it as far into her as it would go this time before swirling it around. He continued to move his tongue, and was rewarded when the girl started to grind her hips against him, her moans beginning to increase in frequency.

Taking one of his hands off her hips, Natsu began to use that hand to massage the area just above her opening. He'd noticed before that it seemed to be especially sensitive. Again his instincts proved correct as Mira moaned louder, her hips grinding more intensely against his face. He intensified his movements, his tongue working furiously on every inch of her womanhood.

It wasn't much longer before her body tensed up, and with a loud, shuddering moan, she released, juices spilling out of her and into Natsu's waiting tongue. The dragon slayer lapped them up eagerly as her body shuddered again, releasing more of her love juices in the orgasm. After a couple moments her body relaxed, collapsing on top of him.

"Mm… Good dragon," Mira muttered lustfully, and before Natsu could do anything further he felt his pants undone. He felt his erection spring free as the voluptuous barmaid pulled his pants and boxers off in one fell swoop. Then he shivered as her tongue slowly traced his member.

"Hmmm… Am I your first time, little dragon?" She teased as his dick twitched under her ministrations. "Well, better get at least one out before the main event or you won't last more than 10 seconds…"

With those words, Natsu felt his erection encompassed by something warm and wet. He groaned softly, feeling her lips pressing against his manhood as her head began to bob up and down. As much as he wanted to deny her assessment of how long he could last, he could already feel that sensation he got when he was masturbating, only it usually took him much, much longer to get there. As she wiggled her hips against him, the smell of her arousal washed over him again. It was enough to set him off, and he grunted as he released into her amazing mouth."

"Mmmm… That's a lot of cum little dragon," she said after he had pumped everything he had into her mouth. "I hope you have enough left for the main event."

With that she slowly flipped herself again so that she was straddling his hips, licking her lips well before pressing them to his. He kissed her for a couple moments, tasting a little bit of himself on her lips, before breaking away to begin on her neck again. She moaned softly, arching against his lips as he continued his ministrations.

Natsu could feel himself getting hard again already, the moans of his voluptuous partner and his youthfulness allowing him to recover quickly from his first release. Soon his erection was fully hard again, and as he kissed Mirajane's breasts, teasing her nipples, she seemed to notice this, because she pulled back from him a bit.

She then positioned herself over him, taking his erection and guiding it to her entrance. Natsu looked up at her, groaning slightly at the tease of having his tip pressed against her, but wanting to make sure this was really what she wanted. She seemed to realize what he wanted and nodded her head. Natsu then pushed up, thrusting into her. A cry escaped her lips, and Natsu felt a bit of warm liquid on his crotch. He looked down to see a trickle of blood coming out of her nether regions.

"It's fine Natsu," her voice jerked him back up to her face, and he saw her eyes, the pain bringing a little clarity to them, yet still filled with lust. "It's the same with all girls their first time. Just go slowly until I tell you."

Natsu nodded, pulling out a little bit slowly before pushing back in. He gasped with pleasure at this feeling. Her mouth had felt amazing, but this was even better! Her inner walls seemed to grip his member as it slid in and out, coated with the love juices she was producing from her aroused state. It was still a little tight, as though it wasn't fully adapted to his member yet, but Mira didn't seem to be hurt by his movements.

Still, he kept the movements slow for the next several moments, kissing her neck softly and massaging her breasts with his hands. He continued to take her nipples in his fingers, rubbing them between his thumb and forefingers as he slid slowly in and out of her. He was actually glad that he'd already cum once, because he was sure he would already be over the edge otherwise.

After a few moments, Mira began to slowly gyrate her hips against him, and a soft moan escaped her beautiful lips. Natsu grunted, taking that as his cue to pick up the pace a little. Mira moved to match him, another small moan escaping her as he began thrusting in and out of her. He kept going, his movements becoming faster and more erratic as he felt himself approaching release again.

Mira moaned again, her body arching against him before she wrapped her arms tightly around his back. Natsu groaned slightly as the motion seemed to make her even tighter, and he was unable to contain himself any longer. With a grunt he released again, his semen pouring out into her womb.

"My what a naughty dragon you are," Mira purred lustfully as she continued to grind against him even after he went soft inside her. "It's rude to cum before your partner you know."

Natsu felt guilty hearing that, but it's not like he could help it! It was his first time, dammit, and she was amazing! Though, her continued grinding actually hurt a little now that his dick was soft inside her. She didn't seem to care, though, as her hips continued to gyrate against his. She sat up higher, giving him a wonderful view of her large breasts as she rode him. As he looked at her full figure sitting on his dick, he felt himself hardening again inside her. Soon his dick was fully erect again.

Mira moaned again, reaching down to massage her clit slowly with one hand. Her breath began to quicken, her own body moving faster and more erratically as she tried to reach her climax. Then with a loud moan she was there, her walls tightening around his shaft that was still buried deep within her. Natsu grunted in pleasure as she came, her body convulsing for a full 30 seconds of orgasms before she nearly collapsed on top of him again.

Natsu took the opportunity to take control, flipping her over on her hands and knees he knelt behind her, lining up his dick with her opening. He heard her gasp as he thrust into her from behind, beginning the next session of their long night of love making.

 **~~~~~~Lemon End~~~~~~**

When Natsu woke up the next morning, the first thing that he realized was that he was hungry. Extremely hungry.

The next thing that he realized was that he was sleeping naked, except his scarf. And his dick was hard. He quickly deduced why when he felt a pair of large breasts pressed against his side and noticed a mass of white hair covering a head that was laying on his chest.

The events of last night came back to him quickly, but as much as he would've liked to go a few more rounds, his stomach was wide awake and reminding him that it had foregone dinner the night before. With a groan he tried to extricate himself from Mira, but she woke up almost instantly.

"Looks like you're ready for some morning sex," she said in a sultry voice.

"Mmm… That sounds great, but I think I need to eat something first," Natsu said, pulling his boxers and pants on and doing his best to hide his erection. He then found his vest and pulled that on as well.

Mira pouted at him before pulling her clothes on. Once she was dressed, Natsu opened the tent and stepped out, standing and stretching. Mirajane followed him, but stumbled slightly as she stood, grabbing his hand for support.

"You ok?" He asked, looking at her in concern.

She nodded, shifting her weight as she responded, "I think I'm actually gonna' have to pass on that morning sex… But breakfast does sound really good."

As she headed toward the pack where the food was kept off the ground, Natsu noticed she seemed to be walking a little funny. "I didn't hurt you last night, did I?" He asked, concerned.

"I'm just a little sore is all," Mira said turning back to him with a smile. "It can happen sometimes after a girl has lots of great sex."

"IT'S NOT MANLY TO HAVE SEX WITH MY SISTER!" Elfman bellowed, plowing out if his tent in his underwear and charging Natsu. But just before he got to the dragon slayer he stopped as though he'd hit a brick wall. His face was filled with a sudden terror as he turned back toward a terrifying magic power that was accompanied by a steely, demonic glare directed at him.

Mira's voice was thick and sweet as honey as she spoke, and that made it all the more scary. "Brother mine. I have just finally laid claim to the man I wanted, and you are _not_ going to assault him for giving me what I wanted. Now, for your information, I plan to have lots of hot sex with Natsu-kun, and he will be very manly. But if I find you trying to give him the 'big little brother' beating, I'll make sure you lose the ability to make babies with your own girlfriend someday. Understood?"

"Aye sir!" Elfman squeaked.

"Aye sir!" Happy squeaked.

"Happy? I wasn't talking to you," Mirajane said, blinking.

"Sorry, force of habit!" Happy said.

Suddenly Mirajane put a hand to her mouth. "Meredy!"

"Oh, you scarred her for life," Happy said to the demon of Fairy Tail. "Between last night and your little speech this morning, she'll be traumatized well into the next life."

"Oh dear Mavis!" Mira cried out, her face turning white as she rushed to where Happy stood. Natsu quickly followed her, ashamed that he'd forgotten the young girl in such a way and allowed things to get out of hand.

When he arrived at the spot, the sight that greeted his eyes was Meredy sleeping peacefully with the noise-cancelling headphones he'd put on her last night before helping Mira with her tent. They both looked up at Happy, who grinned widely.

"She actually had them on all night," he said. "But your reaction was great! You should've seen Mira's face— EEP!"

As Happy was reminded why Mira was called the 'demon of Fairy Tail,' Natsu busied himself preparing breakfast. He found that they thought enough to pack some bacon, kept cold with Gray's ice, as well as some pre-cooked eggs. He quickly gathered a few branches and set fire to them with his magic. Soon he had the bacon sizzling in a pan over the fire.

It wasn't long before the smell of bacon woke the others up, and soon they were all eating breakfast together. Laxus was very silent, and just glared at them the whole time he ate, though of course he took a larger portion than everyone else. Though it could have been a coincidence, Natsu noticed that Lisanna chose to sit by Meredy, far from the chosen seat of the lightning mage.

"Well, we should be in town in a few hours," Mira said, breaking the silence that fell over the little campsite. "Then we can get on a train and be back to Fairy tail just after noon."

"Train?..." Natsu paled a little at the word.

Mira sighed. "Yes, Natsu. It's the quickest way back, so you'll just have to endure it."

Natsu grumbled as he put his utensils away. He'd been the first to finish eating, and he ended up packing Mira's stuff for her. He kind of felt obligated to anyway, since he was the reason she was sore this morning. Ah well. He wasn't looking forward to the train ride, but he couldn't wait to get back to Fairy Tail and see all his friends. He wondered how Erza and Ultear would react when he got back.

Well, he would just have to wait and find out.

* * *

 **Just a few A/N for the flip side of the chapter. First, I've basically decided that Ur will end up in this harem. I already know how it's going to happen, and it will differ slightly from canon. But as for how, you'll just have to wait and see.**

 **So, per the decision to limit the harem to no more than 7, that leaves 3 more spots, one of which is possibly Meredy's (still undecided on this). Just food for thought. But of course each slot, if it is filled (and I'm not saying it will be), will be filled by somebody who makes sense according to the plot structure.**

 **Anywho, that's about it. Thanks for reading! Review if you like!**


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